


Cult of Silver

by Titanmaster_117



Category: RWBY
Genre: Afterlife, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Ancient History, Anxiety, Awkward Conversations, Badasses doing badass things, Battle, Blood Drinking, Blood and Gore, Blood and Violence, Body Horror, Body Modification, Cannibalism, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Childhood Trauma, Conflict, Conspiracy, Conspiracy Theories, Corpse Desecration, Corpses, Corruption, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Cryogenics, Cults, Doppelganger, Dreams, Dreams and Nightmares, Dreamscapes, Dysfunctional Family, Dysfunctional Relationships, Emotional Manipulation, Father Complex, Father Figures, Foreign Language, Friends to Enemies, Frostbite, Genetic Engineering, Ghosts, God Complex, Goddesses, Gods, Government Conspiracy, Haunting, Heaven, Hypnotism, Ice, Ice Powers, Immortality, Immortals, Implied Sexual Content, Insanity, Inspired by Re:Zero, Invasion, Jaune Arc is hearing voices, Joan of Arc allusions, Languages, Languages and Linguistics, Literary References & Allusions, Loss of Control, Loss of Faith, Loss of Trust, Major Original Character(s), Major character death - Freeform, Manipulation, Mental Disintegration, Mental Instability, Mental Link, Mercenaries, Mild Sexual Content, Mind Control, Mind Games, Mind Manipulation, Mind Rape, Minor Character Death, Minor Original Character(s), Mother Complex, Mother Figures, Multi, Muscles, Mystery, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Necromancy, New Grimm types, OR IS HE, Obsession, Obsessive Behavior, One-Sided Attraction, Out of Body Experiences, Partial Mind Control, Past Character Death, People worship silver eyes, Possession, Possessive Behavior, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Private Military Contractors, Propaganda, Psychological Trauma, Purgatory, Religion, Religious Conflict, Religious Cults, Religious Fanaticism, Schizophrenia, Sexual Content, Sexual Violence, Sieges, Silver Eyes, Silver eyed cultists, Socially Awkward Jaune Arc, Socially Awkward Ruby Rose (RWBY), Spirits, Spiritual, Supernatural Elements, Teleportation, Things are not what they seem, Torture, Trauma, Undead, Undead Grimm, Unhealthy Relationships, Vampires, Violent Thoughts, War, Why has nobody done that before, Worldbuilding, Worship, Yandere, bottle episode, mental reprogramming, of a sort
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:20:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 16
Words: 132,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27416398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Titanmaster_117/pseuds/Titanmaster_117
Summary: It is in the darkness of Remnant, that you will find the light. A silver lantern, banishing away the evils of the world, and bringing with it a swift chance of hope.But what if there are those that are deluded by their power?What if there are those so blinded by their righteousness, that they forget what made them righteous in the first place?It is time for Remnant to learn.The Cult of Silver are rising to prominence, ancient power is about to be unearthed, secrets will be revealed, lives will be lost and changed forever, friends will become enemies, and a dark history is about to be unearthed.And in the hearts and minds of all, a single question must be asked:Who can you trust, when you can’t even trust yourself?
Relationships: Blake Belladonna & Ruby Rose & Weiss Schnee & Yang Xiao Long, Dove Bronzewing & Sky Lark & Russel Thrush, Glynda Goodwitch & Ozpin, Jaune Arc & Original Character(s), Jaune Arc & Pyrrha Nikos, Jaune Arc & Pyrrha Nikos & Lie Ren & Nora Valkyrie, Jaune Arc & Ruby Rose, Jaune Arc & Ruby Rose & Yang Xiao Long, Jaune Arc & Saphron Cotta-Arc, Lie Ren & Nora Valkyrie, Melanie Malachite & Miltiades Malachite, Mercury Black & Emerald Sustrai, Neopolitan & Roman Torchwick, Ozpin & Salem (RWBY), Ruby Rose & Yang Xiao Long, Ruby Rose (RWBY) & Original Character(s), Saphron Cotta-Arc/Terra Cotta-Arc
Comments: 25
Kudos: 28





	1. Prologue: Ruby Rose: REMASTERED

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A familiar night encounters a significant hiccup, and with it, the course of history is changed forever...

**Main theme:** [_Death Hymn by Lucas King_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmTN8wu2AM8) _  
_**Theme:**[ _Sociopath by Lucas King_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VagES3pxttQ)

* * *

Ruby was having a good day.

Well, at least, she had been having a good day, until this guy dressed in black and red with sunglasses and a fedora had interrupted her whilst she was reading her weapon's magazine with her headphones on.

What a butt.

"Yes?" she asked with a curious look on her face, unsure as to why the man was wearing sunglasses indoors. At night.

Hey, if it was what this guy wanted to wear, then more power to him. Who was she to judge this guy's fashion sense.

"I said, put your hands in the air, now!"

…Wait.

"Are you... Robbing me?"

"Yes!"

"Ooohhh…"

Huh, turns out this guy was a bigger butt than she though. Who would've guessed.

Still, that's when she darted her head to the side and saw all of the guys dressed in the same getup as the guy trying to rob her holding that nice old shopkeeper at gunpoint and shovelling as much dust into their cases as possible, all of this overseen by some guy with a bowler hat, white coat, and cigar...

Oh boy, Roman Torchwick. She had come to know this guy by reputation. A narcissist and a thief with a flare for the dramatic.

More importantly though, these guys were trying to rob this place, and were threatening to kill an innocent man, and as an honourable Huntress in training at Signal Academy, it was her duty to interfere and stop them.

And so, with that, she decided to interfere, and-

"Hey!"

"Hyah!"

-Smacked the thug in the face so hard (Thank you for the lessons, Yang) That it sent him sending him flying through the shop and into a display case.

Whoops. That wasn't what was meant to happen.

Ah well, she'd worry about it later. Right now, she had bad guys to beat up!

"Freeze!" another thug called out as he pointed a gun out her. Of course, this didn't faze Ruby as she activated her semblance, and sent herself and the bad guy flying through the window, shattering it, and into the streets.

Yeah, that wasn't meant to happen either. Ugh, Dad was going to grow an ulcer from this, she just knew it.

Luckily, though, as she unfolded her Crescent Rose and turned off her headphones, swinging her beloved weapon over her shoulder before impaling it into the ground, all of the thugs and that Roman guy had gathered by the window to observe her, meaning that she had drawn their attention from the civilian inside and towards her. Perfect. At least they weren't threatening the shopkeeper anymore.

"Okayyy…", Roman drawled out, before turning to his hired muscle and deadpanning, "Get her", and with that, the rest of the thugs, armed with swords and a machine gun, charged outwards to meet her in battle.

Ruby smiled.

The fight lasted 10 seconds.

As Ruby stood over her defeated opponents (Seriously, were these guys even trying? She felt a tad bit insulted at how easily they went down... Oh god, now she was starting to sound like Yang), Roman, now outside, just muttered, "You were worth every cent. Truly, you were", and then, taking his cigar out of his mouth, "Well, Red, I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening-", and then dropping it to the floor and stomping on it with his cane, "-And as much as I'd love to stick around-", he then lifted his cane up and pointed at her. At the sounds of police sirens in the backdrop, the top of his cane flipped up to reveal a cross grid for a scope. His cane was his weapon, "-I'm afraid this is where we part ways."

His cane roared like a firework, releasing a sundering projectile that Ruby jumped through the air to dodge, the shot tearing up the floor of where she had once been standing as she flipped back down, only to see that Roman had quickly made his escape. After a moment's investigation, she caught him climbing up the ladder of one building in particular, all the way towards the roof.

She turned to the shopkeeper, now peering out of the window at the resolved skirmish outside, and asked, "You okay if I go after him?"

A quick, "Uh huh", was his response, and with that, she sped down the road, and up the side of the building, jumping high in the air, and landing behind Roman, now on the other side of the roof.

"Hey!" she called out to him, and she could just tell from the tone of his voice-

"Persistent..."

-That he was scowling like mad.

And then, suddenly, as if he had beckoned it with but a wordless command, a Bullhead soared up from below, having been hidden from view-

Where the heck had he been hiding that thing?! Something like that couldn't- No, shouldn't have gone unnoticed! And, in fact, had that thing just been waiting there, behind that building, this whole time, just waiting for the right dramatic moment to make its entrance?!

With what she had heard about Roman, that might actually be the case.

-And shone a bright blinding light onto Ruby that fazed her for just long enough for Roman to clamber into its open holding bay, and laugh, "End of the line, Red", before pulling out something from his coat pocket-

A fire dust crystal. Extremely volatile.

-And throwing it at her feet, before raising his cane weapon, and letting another firecracker round roar, flying straight towards her.

The explosion never hit her.

In their way, a woman with green eyes and blonde hair, dressed in a white shirt, black and purple cape, glasses, and armed with a riding crop, had gotten on the way, and cast a glowing purple glyph before the both of them, shielding them from the explosive shot before it even reached them.

A Huntress. This woman was a Huntress.

Ruby supressed her squeal of excitement.

With a wave of her hand, the Huntress sent a flurry of purple lances twisting in the air and impacting with the Bullhead, knocking it around before sending another shot out and summoning a cloud of thunder above it.

This is so cool! Ruby thought to herself as, with a motion of the Huntress' hand, shards of ice began to rain down and impale themselves into the Bullhead, embedding themselves into its hull and sending it swaying from left to right.

But then, in the open hold, a woman, the upper half of her body concealed by shadows, but with piercing amber eyes that glowed in the darkness, stepped forth, and raised her hand, sending a fireball lancing outwards at the Huntress, which she blocked with another purple glyph, only for the ground beneath her to glow red hot, and then explode outwards, the Huntress cartwheeling out of the way as she took hold of the shattered pieces of concrete roof in a purple telekinetic grasp, forming them together into a spear that she shot forwards, only to be impeded by a series of fire blasts from the amber eyed woman, glowing amber tattoos covering her dress, and then deflected by the Bullhead tilting to the side and letting the spear of shattered concrete bouncing off of the hull, turning into 3 twisting tubes of artificial stones, like snakes in the air, before an encompassing blast from the amber eyed girl flew outwards, and turned all of the shattered concrete shards to ash, and then, to nothingness.

The Bullhead began to pull away, and Ruby put up as much of a resistance against its escape as she could, sending sniper blast after sniper blast at the woman (If she could use her semblance to summon fire like that, then she had aura to protect her, so she wasn't too worried for her), Only for the amber eyed woman to block each blast with her hand alone, and then, with a wave of her other arm, turn the ground beneath them into molten explosives.

Ruby didn't notice until a second before they detonated, but the Huntress didn't make the same mistake, as she pushed the red and black themed girl out of the way of the impending explosions, and cartwheeled away, just as the ground detonated into fire and burnt slivers of concrete.

The Huntress made a flawless recovery, of course, but Ruby had to stumble up to her feet, because of course, as the Bullhead pulled away and began to ascend high into the sky.

Finally, Ruby could no longer suppress her squeal, as she turned to the Huntress before her, and, in an awestruck tone, went, "You're a Huntress... Can I have your autograph?!"

The Huntress just looked at her with a deadpan expression, "Oh, but of course-"

"Yay!"

"-After our little chat down at the police station."

A purple glow enveloped Ruby, and suddenly she was lifted off of the ground, "W-Wait, what?! Why!?"

"Oh, I don't know", the Huntress said, "How about for reckless endangerment, destruction of property, aggravated assault, use of a weapon in a public space- Without a license, any less- As well as chasing down a criminal by yourself and almost getting yourself killed?"

"…They started it?"

The Huntress just adjusted her glasses and sighed, "I swear, you can be too much like your sister sometimes-"

{KA-BOOM}

The sky above them began to light up a rainbow of colours, and the Huntress looked up in shock, unconsciously releasing Ruby from her grip as she fell to the floor, and picked herself back up, only for her to look up as well, and for her eyes to widen in equal shock.

Dozens of lances and beams of light shot out from the ground and slammed themselves into the Bullhead high in the sky, shredding the engines and tearing apart the armour. A rocket, most likely from an RPG, impacted with the tail-end of the Bullhead, shattering it, and sending the flaming husk of a ship barrelling down into the city below, detonating into a fiery explosion, thanks to all of the shots that had gone into it.

Before either Ruby or the Huntress could elicit any sort of reaction, a loud laugh caught their attention, and they turned to the building on the other side of the road, only to see 2 individuals looking over them. One was a tall woman with brown coloured hair, and dressed in a pair of ripped jean shorts, a dark yellow bra, and a long black cloak that covered her shoulders, with a pair of knee high boots covering her feet, and the other was a small boy, about 12 or so, dressed in a smart pair of work trousers and a blue shirt with a collar, almost like a school uniform, and with deep black hair, sharpened fangs for teeth with fresh blood covering them.

And the both of them had piercing silver eyes.

The 2 of them looked over to Ruby and the Huntress- No, just Ruby- And smiled.

* * *

_"Are you sure you're going to be okay?"_

"Yeah Saph, I'll be fine. Don't worry about me."

_"Kind of hard not too when you're walking into a Huntsman academy with absolutely no training, Jaune."_

Jaune just laughed it off in the middle of his cheap hotel room as he looked back at the scroll in his hand, displaying the concerned blue eyes of a much older sister, "Hey, it's called a Huntsman academy for a reason, sis. It's their job to teach us about everything to do with a Huntsman."

 _"Yeah, but usually beforehand, a Huntsman in training goes into one of those prep-schools that they have, which, you know, Mum and Dad forbade you into going to"_ , Saphron justifiably pointed out, _"And what happens if they realise that your transcripts are fake, huh? Then what?"_

Jaune rubbed the back of his head, and tried to suppress his own equal, if not more so, worries at his own actions, as he hid his concerns behind a smile, and said, "C'mon, Saph, you really think that these guys wouldn't have figured me out already. If they had figured out that my transcripts are fake, then they would've already sent me a letter saying that I wasn't excepted. They wouldn't send that email saying that I got in, only to invite me in just to turn me down. They wouldn't do something like that just for the sake of it, and since they haven't sent any letter saying that I'm not excepted, then that means that I'm good for gold."

_"You really think so?"_

_Probably not, but I can hope, at least_ , "Yeah", he tried to starve off his own fears with a heartfelt thumbs up to Saphron, if only to make her feel more at peace, "I'm good to go, for now at least."

 _"...You know, there are other ways to become a hero"_ , Saphron said with saddened narrow eyes, _"You don't have to risk your life like this."_

 _…Yeah, yeah I do. To honour them, and to mean something to them_ , Jaune thought to himself, but he didn't say that as he then turned to Saphron, and said, "I know", he didn't, actually, but it put Saphron at ease at least, "I'll let you know how things are going on later, yeah?"

"...Yeah, alright then", Saphron said, as she smiled and waved to Jaune over the scroll's voice chat, and said, "See you later, little bro."

"Yeah, see you too big sis", Jaune said, before ending the call.

If he had stayed on the call for a moment longer, he would've noted Saphron's wife coming out of a basement that shouldn't exist.

* * *

"GAUGH!" Cinder screamed as the black market doctor next to her pulled out a long piece of shrapnel that had embedded itself in her arm, leaving a long, ugly bleeding gash across her arms that was beginning to heal thanks to her aura, though it was still a painful process.

She would never give Roman nor this doctor any of the thanks that they were due, but they had been lifesavers. Roman and his little tyke of a partner for finding it in them to help her get out of the burning wreckage (As well as a quick promise to kill Roman and his midget partner slowly should she escape on her own), And this doctor for pulling out all of the shards of metal that had stabbed herself into her body without any hassle.

Though she suspected that Roman had paid the man to make it as uncomfortable as possible.

She supposed that part of the pain that she was currently feeling was her fault, seeing as she had denied any anaesthetics to try and dull it. She didn't know if Roman had poisoned them, and besides, any use of anaesthetics was a sign of weakness, and she hated being seen as weak.

Almost as much as she hated the smug look on the significantly less battered Roman's face, "You know, I did just save you-" a jab to the elbow from her little pet midget stopped him, "-Sorry, we just saved you, so, you know, maybe you should look at least a tad bit more grateful for that, otherwise I might just have to reconsider this entire romance that we've got going-"

A fireball to the wall next to him quietened him down, "SHUT. UP", was Cinder's command, before turning to Emerald and Mercury, the both of them standing off to the side, one looking more worried than the other (No guesses as to who was who), And growled out, "You 2, who were those- AUGH!" she hissed as the doctor pulled out a piece of broken glass in her face, right next to her eye, and then continued, "Who were those people that shot us down?"

"I-I'm sorry, ma'am, but I don't- I don't know", Emerald stuttered out. Cinder was at least amused slightly at the worry for her in her most loyal disposable's voice, but that was suppressed by the annoyance at her incompetence, "I mean, there were- There were so many of them, and they were all wearing uniforms that I've never seen before!"

"Whoever they are, they're organised", Mercury added in with coolly, not at all bothered by the bloody and battered state that his leader was in, "And well armed. They were waiting for you, boss. It was like they knew exactly where you were going to go."

"Ozpin...", Cinder growled out, "This must be his doing... Of course it is. That little narcissistic fool has his own private army", she hissed again as her aura healed over a freshly emptied wound in her knee, before turning to Roman, and growling out, "Roman, call in Adam and his White Fang. Call in every contact that you have. I want everyone that shot us down, and their friends and families, all killed. Violently, slowly, and painfully."

Roman scowled, "So, you want me to stop hunting for dust, then?"

"No."

"Seriously!? You expect me to do all of that as well? I'm not a fucking charity case, woman! How the hell do you expect me to do all of that at the same time?!"

She then tilted her head to the side, letting her messy bloody hair cover her face, and turned to Roman, her glowing amber eyes piercing through the crimson and onyx darkness. She looked positively demented.

"I do not care how you do it, Roman. I do not care what bones you have to break, either theirs or yours. Just get it done. Gather the dust, complete the breach, find me the people responsible for today, skin their families alive, AND BRING ME THEIR HEADS ON PIKES!"

* * *

"You let them go?"

"Didn't have much of a choice. Police forces were inbound- At least, the ones that we don't own- And that Goodwitch woman was nearby. I didn't want to risk any further engagements. Not without the necessary manpower, at least."

"Hm, fine, fine. This is an acceptable outcome, at least, though it does muddy things about. They will most likely accelerate their plans, now."

"True..."

"...Is there something else?"

"...She was there."

"Are you certain?"

"Positive."

"...Finally."

"You think that she'll be in Beacon?"

"Ozpin would not dare miss the opportunity to have one of them on his side. Not in the slightest."

"Ah, so no change on that front, at least."

"Positive."

"Everything's coming together, huh?"

"Of course."

"Just need to make sure that nothing gets in the way."

"Nothing will. None of them can. And very soon, none of them will want to. We will take Vale, and then, we will take Remnant. Not through our hate, but through our love. We will embrace our goddess and her lover, and we will become whole. One family, one union. And soon, we will spread our love all over this world!"

"And take everything in our name?"

"Indeed. Glory to the Cult of Silver."

"Heh, I'll drink to that."


	2. Beacon part 1: Worst First Impressions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the day before Initiation, and everyone has gathered at Beacon, their new home. But not everyone is feeling so joyous. New faces are met, uncomfortable truths are realised, and even more dire questions are asked...
> 
> And it all begins with a white cloak.

**Main theme:** _[Death Hymn by Lucas King](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmTN8wu2AM8)  
_ **Arc theme:**[ _Rise from the Destiny 2 soundtrack_ _  
_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=intmEEVphig) **Theme:**[ _View from Orbit from the Destiny 2 soundtrack_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz9yfvrqNnA)

* * *

High up in the skies of Vale, a series of airships soared over the city, coated a brilliant orange and blue in the early morning sky, the shadows of darkness retreating over the hills as the rested sun began to crest over the side of the world, illuminating the clouds and turning the sky from black to orange to blue. The owls finished their nightly songs, and gave way for the birds of the morning to begin their own verses, creating a kingdom wide song of bird calls as the artificial lights below shut off and fell silent, whilst the world around them, in juxtaposition, began to fill with noise and a cacophony of sound.

The airships in the sky swam through the heavens like fish, their wings twirling in the air as they glided below the clouds, their underbellies reflecting in the glistening lake below as the water sparkled and shone in the morning light of the sun. Inside these airships, a new generation of hopefuls and aspiring Huntsmen and Huntresses bantered with each other and watched and smiled, feeling a heavy mixture of nerves and butterflies in their stomachs as they awaited the inevitable end to their journey, to, what should hopefully be, their new home.

Beacon Academy, one of the greatest Huntsman schools on Remnant.

However, one aspiring warrior to be was not just feeling those nerves, however.

They were also feeling the sensation of hacking up their own breakfast into a toilet.

It was not a pleasant feeling.

Jaune Arc heaved for one last time into the public toilet, and then let out a queasy groan. From the sounds of it outside the cubicle that he had been occupying, other people had been entering in for the first few minutes of his violent puking, only to immediately leave upon hearing him vomiting his guts out.

He would've liked one of them to have asked if he needed any help, though. It would've been a nice gesture, at least.

Damned motion sickness! Why did it have to get him now, of all times? Ugh, this was the worst way to make a first impression to his possible classmates in the future.

Groaning to himself once more, he pulled himself out of the cubicle (Remembering to flush, of course), And then balancing himself against the sink with his own 2 hands, taking in deep breaths to regain some sense of control over himself, and then washing his face and mouth clean, before pulling open the bag on his back, pulling out his emergency motion sickness kit-

Hey, pays to be prepared!

-And downing a cup full of mouthwash, swirling it around in his mouth for a good minute, before spitting it out, and then downing a pair of breath mints to get rid of the puke smell.

Good, now with all of that done, time to get out of the toilets, and into the wider world!

Or airship.

Moving airship...

On second thoughts, he might just stay in here.

Huffing out a loud breath, he slapped his cheeks, and decided to just head out and not look out of any of the windows. Best to make sure that he was as far away from them as he possibly could be.

However, as he left the men's toilet, a dry voice called out to him with, "Ryuzu heard all of that."

He jumped in place, and looked to the side to see a pink haired girl with piercing red eyes, dressed in a... Maid uniform? Yeah, a black and white maid uniform, with a snowflake emblem in the middle, between the upper half of her chest, and a sardonic expression on her face.

"Ryuzu heard all of that", 'Ryuzu' repeated, "Heard you coughing up your stomach like a demon beast."

"Oh...", Jaune muttered awkwardly, before, with a suddenly hopeful note in his voice, he then asked, "Were you... Were you keeping people away from here? For me?"

"No, Ryuzu was listening."

"...Wha-"

"Ryuzu likes to listen to people that she thinks are her lessers in pain."

"...Who do you-"

"Everyone that is not Ryuzu."

"Oh..."

"There you are, Ryuzu!"

The both of them turned to the side, to see a white themed girl with platinum blonde hair tied into a ponytail (Honestly, probably the prettiest girl that he had ever seen) Marching towards them. Jaune readied a pickup line off of the top of his tongue, but was stopped his tracks when the white dressed girl grabbed the maid girl by her arm harshly, and went, "Where have you been!? I've been looking everywhere for you! Do you know what it looks like for a Schnee if one of their own staff goes off on their own little tryst?!"

"Er-"

"Zip it, boy!" the white themed girl pointed a finger up at him, before turning back to presumably her maid, and going, "Well, what do you have to say for yourself?"

"Ryuzu was listening to barf boy puke his guts out."

"Hey..."

"What?! Why?!"

"Ryuzu likes to listen to people that she thinks are her lessers in pain."

"Who do you think are lesser than you, then?"

"Everyone that is not Ryuzu."

The white themed girl's eyes narrowed.

"Or Miss Schnee."

"Better", the 'Schnee' girl snapped, before grabbing Ryuzu again by the wrist, and dragging her away, "Now come on, we have things to attend to!" Ryuzu spared one last glance down to Jaune as they were leaving, before shaking herself out of the Schnee girl's grasp, and walking with her, to her side.

…Like he said before, that was the worst way to make a first impression.

Sighing to himself, he swung his bag over his shoulder, and moved to zip it closed, when he saw... Well, when he saw it.

It had been a last minute decision to put it in his bag, but it was a decision that he didn't regret. His bunny onesie? Maybe? Depends on how people react to it. But this?

It had been with him ever since he was a child. He didn't know why, but he had always felt... A strange sense of comfort from it. Like a soothing call. He couldn't really explain it, but it had been one of his favourite possessions as a child. His soothing blanket. His veil of warmth. For him to be apart from it... Well, to him at least, it would be like trying to separate the stars from the night sky.

Noticing that there was nobody else in the corridor around him (Huh, strange... Must've fled at the sound of his own intense vomiting), He shrugged to himself, pulled it out of his bag, and flung it over his shoulders. In an instant, that familiar sense of comfort returned, and he sighed.

That was just a fluke, hopefully. Surely? He really didn't need his entire day to be nothing but vomiting his guts out nonstop.

With another sigh, he picked himself back up, slung his bag over his shoulder, and moved on down the empty corridor, vowing to just find somewhere secluded and away from any windows to sit for the rest of the journey.

All the while, he remained unaware of the pair of eyes that followed him along.

* * *

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

_"The incident last night above Vale, preceded by a dust robbery carried out by Roman Torchwick, has been labelled as a terrorist attack by Valerian authorities and government officials, though many reported individuals suspect that this is not the case, as the targeted Bullhead was being piloted by a known criminal, and no other late night airships or Bullheads were targeted by the supposed terrorists. Police investigators have reason to believe that the once peaceful peaceful protest movement, the White Fang, is responsible for the attack. Professor Glynda Goodwitch has released a statement about the event, and reports have confirmed that there were no casualties when the Bullhead crashed into the streets of Vale, meaning that the whereabouts of Roman Torchwick are still unknown."_

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Try to ignore the fact that while nobody died... They could've.

Fail at ignoring that fact.

Ruby knew that death was an unavoidable fact of life when it came to being a Huntress. She knew that the possibility of her dying was high in a career like this. She was naïve in a lot of things, she knew, but she wasn't that naïve.

It was a fact- The awareness of her own mortality- That she had long since accepted and got over. If she truly feared dying, then she would've quit trying to be a Huntress years ago.

It was other people dying that she had a problem with.

Again, she knew that this was an unavoidable fact of life when it came to being a Huntress and fighting against the Grimm. Sometimes people died, and sometimes people had to die, but that didn't mean that she had to like it. But Uncle Qrow had made sure, in his own cynical way, that sometimes you couldn't save everyone.

And in all honesty, that was probably one of the few things that she and her uncle had disagreed over.

Why couldn't she save everyone? Why was that somehow proclaimed to be impossible? Why couldn't she defeat all of the Grimm, burn away all that is evil in the world, and save everyone, no exceptions? Why was that not allowed?

Was it an unrealistic want?

Maybe.

Was it an ideal worth living by, though?

Absolutely.

But then, last night, the Bullhead carrying Roman Torchwick and whoever that fire lady that had been with him was... It got shot down over Vale, and crashed right into the streets. Nobody had died, sure, but still...

People could've died.

People could've died, and she wouldn't have been able to do anything about it.

 _Stop it, stop that line of thought_ , Ruby thought to herself, _Remember what Professor Ozpin said when he invited you into Beacon last week: 'Those criminals who had shot Roman's Bullhead down are the ones responsible, and they shall bear the consequences of their actions, not you'._

Ruby smiled at least at that. Yeah, what happened last night wasn't her fault, and she should accept that. Instead, she should be focusing herself on the more important questions:

Who was that woman that had been with Roman Torchwick after she stopped his dust robbery? Had she been his subordinate? His partner? His boss? She didn't know, but maybe Miss Goodwitch and Ozpin did, seeing as whilst they were fighting, Miss Goodwitch seemed to be familiar with the fire semblance that the woman was using. Or maybe she was just that good at fighting. Probably both.

Who were the people that had shot Roman's Bullhead down? From the amount of firepower that had been going up into the air, she had assumed to be at least a few dozen, though they seemed to be coordinated with the amount of guns and fields of fire that they were throwing up, and the fact that they had an RPG with them meant that they were well armed? White Fang? Rogue Huntsmen? Some other terrorist faction? Some other type of paramilitary organisation or militia? Something else entirely?

Who were the 2 people- The woman and the young boy- That had been watching them? She hadn't met them before, but from the way they looked at her, and only her... It was like they knew her. It was like they knew everything about her. And their smiles! Why did they smile at her? Had they already met her, somehow, and she just couldn't remember it? Did they know Dad and his company? Were they enemies of Dad's company? It wasn't a thought that she wanted to entertain.

And finally, what was the deal with the whole silver eyes thing? Ozpin had pointed it out offhandedly to her when he came to see her in the interrogation room, and on any other day, she would've written it off as just a simple observation, or perhaps a comparison between her and her mother (She had always assumed that Ozpin had known her mother on a professional level, seeing as even back then he was headmaster of Beacon when she was still a student). But now? With the fact that the 2 people that had been watching her had silver eyes as well- Piercing silver eyes, on top of that- She suspected that there was a deeper connection at play, here, and she wanted to investigate it.

However, that would come for another day. Right now, she had to worry about tomorrow- About initiation- And finding the right partner for herself, and making sure that she was on the best team possible. So says Ruby Rose!

"You okay there, kid?"

Ruby jumped in place, and wheeled around quickly and also nervously, to see an older looking girl looking down at her with kind eyes, and a thick blond mane of- Wait, no, not Yang. This girl's outfit was completely different to her sister's, looking more like a nun than Yang's biker outfit-

Actually, it didn't really remind Ruby of a nun. It almost... It almost reminded her of a wet nurse, for some reason.

-Well, a militaristic nun at least, with kneepads, spaulders, leather boots, kevlar chest armour, and a helmet clamped to her side, tying down her black robes and white velvet silk, and leaving her hood pushed down, revealing her head to the world, and showing her hair, blonde, untamed, and wild, though short, down to the neck, and forest green eyes that shone like a friendly predator.

If Ruby hadn't been paying attention, she wouldn't have noticed the busy lion's tale swinging behind her. But of course, there it was, distinguishing herself as a lion Faunus.

Ruby blinked, and then stuttered out, "Oh, er- Erm, I'm- I'm fine! I'm good, I'm... I'm okay."

The girl tilted her head to the side, and then offered her a casual smile, and-

Oh good gods, her teeth were sharp! They were likes rows of talons in her mouth! Has she never been to the dreaded dentist before?!

-Said, "Ah, okay then."

Ruby gave an awkward nod to the girl with the very intimidating teeth, and looked back out of the window, down to the city below. If she squinted her eyes just enough, she could see the crash site of the Bullhead in the middle of Vale.

"Anima."

Ruby looked to the girl dressed up like an army nun, and went, "Huh?"

"My name's Anima Senterra."

"...Er, l-like, the continent?"

'Anima' pouted, "There something wrong with my name?"

"Wha- No! No no no!" Ruby waved her hands in denial at the stranger, "No, I don't- I mean-"

"I know, I'm kidding", Anima smiled again, a teasing grin on her face as Ruby blinked, and then began to pout herself. She already got enough teasing from Yang to begin with. She really didn't need any more!

Actually, now that she thought about it, she did seem a lot like Yang. So much so that she might've mistaken this woman for her older sister from a distance. They were both the same height, had the same figure shape, had the same coloured hair, had a slightly sharper facial structure, had similar voices (They sounded mostly the same, but Anima's was much smoother, cooler, and reserved, whilst Yang sounded wild, untamed, and unrestrained), Heck, they even had the same boob size!-

(She never understood why Uncle Qrow had taught her how to tell a girl's boob size underneath a constraining outfit. Then again, he was drinking a lot from his flask at the time, so that might explain it.)

-In fact, the only differences between her and Yang that she could see were their eye colours, their outfits, their teeth, their hair length, and the fact that one of them had a tail and the other didn't. Everything else, they were practically identical.

The fact that she reminded her so much of Yang, down to the playful teasing, was kind of... It was weird, to say the least.

Anima looked up, and then looked back down at her, smiling as she then said, "See you later, kiddo", and then turned around and left, walking down the corridor of the airship, sparing one last glance down at Ruby, before moving around the corner.

Ruby found herself smiling. Hey, maybe things wouldn't be so bad after all-

"Oh... My... God..."

-Is what she wanted to say.

A pair of muscular, but still gentle, arms grabbed her from behind, whipped her around, and then pulled her into the mother of all bear hugs as Yang, her older sister, seemed to make it her mission to smother her to death as she cooed happily and swung her side to side, "I can't believe it! My little sister is already making new friends! And all without me! Oh, I should break out the scrapbook! Take a picture and put it in a holiday photo!"

"Ugh, Yang, stop!" Ruby called out, though much more muffled than presented as she pulled her head away from Yang's unbearably large chest and scowled at her, "I swear, sometimes I think you're actively trying to kill me by doing that!"

"What? Of course not", Yang chirped as she finally let Ruby go and allowed her save her unfortunate lungs, "I was just happy- No, ecstatic!- At the fact that you were making a new friend all by yourself!" she then stuck her tongue out and gave her a thumbs up, "Keep this up, and you'll be sure to have a Yanging good time!"

"Ugh, stop. Stop with the puns, please", Ruby sighed, before looking back down the corridor, and going, "She approached me though. Anima Senterra. She approached me. I guess I just... Looked weird", there was a long pause, and then, "Oh gosh, she thought I was a weirdo, didn't she?!"

"Oh, c'mon, sis, I'm sure that she was just admiring how cool you looked!" Yang happily replied as she grabbed Ruby into a one armed hug, "You gotta have a little more self-confidence in yourself, you know! You're attending Beacon Academy now. That kind of attitude needs to kick the bucket, otherwise you're not going to get anywhere in life!"

"Right, thanks Yang", Ruby smiled, before going, "Honestly, I don't know why Professor Ozpin allowed me in 2 years early. I'm starting to think that it's a pity thing..."

"Hey, what did I say about that attitude?" Yang replied by flicking her in the nose-

"Ow! What was that for?"

"That was for that maudlin attitude!"

"I'm not even sure if that word was used in the right context..."

"Whatever. My point stands: Cut out that depressing attitude! If Ozpin allowed you in, then that must mean that he saw how great you are! I mean, you're a combat progeny, remember? You're one of the best fighter's in Signal! If Ozpin invited you to Beacon so early, then he must've thought that you were great enough to join the big leagues already!"

"And not because of the colour of my eyes...", Ruby muttered to herself, quiet enough for no one else around her to hear.

Yang heard it, though, as she queered her head and asked, "What's that? About your eyes?"

"Last night, at the police station-"

"After you kicked Roman Torchwick's ass?"

"-Language, Yang, but, yeah, sure. In the police station, Professor Ozpin mentioned my eyes. How they were silver. I would've put it down to just an observation, but...", she decided to omit a few details, as to not worry her sister, "Whilst I was leaving, I heard Professor Goodwitch mention to the Headmaster that a few of the people attacking Roman's Bullhead... They had silver eyes as well, and Professor Ozpin... Well, he seemed surprised by it."

Yang blinked, and then, with a look of concern on her face, she asked, "What does... What does that mean?"

"I don't know", Ruby replied honestly, before deciding to change the subject, and looking back down the corridor, "That girl. Anima-"

"Your new friend?"

Ruby rolled her eyes, "I don't think I've made it that far with her, yet", and then continued with what she was saying previously, "Well, she... She looked a lot like you."

"Hm?"

"Yeah, she did. Got the same figure, same hair colour, same a lot of things, bar a few details. From a distance, I would've probably confused you 2 as identical."

"Huh", Yang said, "Nice. People are already picking up on my style. Well I like it! More Yang Xiao Longs in the world would just make Remnant such a better place!"

"Oh gods, I'm already thinking about it. So many dang puns..."

"Exactly! Picture it, Ruby!" Yang then made a dramatic sweeping motion with her free hand, "Puns. Puns everywhere!"

"Well, that sounds... Horrifying", Ruby said as she finally wiggled her way out of her sister's hold, and then went, "Ugh, Beacon is going to be a nightmare, I can feel it in my normal knees! I just hope that I can find the right team- Who are hopefully all weapon and cookie lovers as well- And... And..."

She trailed off and looked down the corridor, falling silent and still. Yang, confused, looked to where she was staring, and found her own mind stalling in place as well.

Hurrying past them, in an almost frantic motion, was a blond haired boy in a pure white cloak with a golden rose emblem on the back.

* * *

Jaune was so glad when he was finally able to get off of the heathen death tube that went zoom-zoom in the sky and fall flat on the ground, just after emptying the rest of his stomach contents into a nearby bin. Thank the gods that he had a spare pack of wipes on him to, you know, wipe away anything undesirable from his mouth, otherwise he would've just kept worsening his first impressions on people.

Seriously, why couldn't they have taken a tram up, or something? Why couldn't Beacon have a tram up, and not an Airship or anything that moved in the air? Why did it have to be that, and not something that flew through the sky?

Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.

"You okay there, man?"

Jaune looked to his side, to see a girl in a long sleeved trench coat, with onyx hair tied back into a ponytail, and bright blue, almost synthetic looking, eyes, with a black shirt underneath her coat and black cargo trousers, giving him a stare with a raised eyebrow. With a wave of his hand, he went, "Nope! I'm all good! Just happy to get off of the heathen death tube, is all!"

The girl tilted her head, before nodding, whilst behind her, a girl dressed in pink, white, and black with ginger hair and aqua (Or was it turquoise?) Coloured eyes, accompanied by a boy dressed in green, black, white, and yellow, with long black hair and pink shaded eyes, looked at him curiously, and went, "What'd you call it?"

"Huh?"

"The airship?"

"Yeah", the ginger haired girl said with a smile, as she gestured to it, "You gave it a funny name."

"You mean... Oh, I called it a heathen death tube."

The girl guffawed, "Hah! I like it!" before turning to her companion and going, "Renny, can we go fly on the heathen death tube again?"

"Maybe later, Nora."

"Yay!" and with that, 'Nora' and 'Renny' (A pet name, or nickname, perhaps), Were on their way down the ramp, and into the impressive courtyard of Beacon Academy.

Jaune sighed. At least they didn't notice his motion sickness.

"Try not to vomit on anyone like you were doing before, Vomit Boy!"

Goddammit...

Jaune groaned in frustration, before shaking it off, and deciding to just head on into Beacon, and just hope that he didn't get lost. Maybe there was somebody around who already knew the place, and could show him around.

 _Or show him to the door out of here_ , a treacherous, yet reasonable, voice in his head went. He was saddened at the fact that he couldn't help but agree.

Jaune knew that he didn't belong here, in a place like this. Faking his transcripts into Beacon had been a poorly thought plan. His sister, Saphron, had said as much, and he knew that she was right. No matter how many times he would tell both her and himself that he would be fine- That he was in the clear- He knew that he had only gotten this far because of luck, and luck alone.

That, and possibly taking the place of someone who truly deserved a place at Beacon Academy, and not him.

He winced internally. He knew that it wasn't right that he was here, in a place of the valiant and the brave. He didn't have a fancy weapon- Merely an old sword and shield. He didn't have any training- Merely some practice at swinging and a strange sense of instincts that he had acquired over the years-

(For some strange reason, he had always had a knack for wielding Crocea Mors, knowing how to swing it and how to use it properly. It was strange, how his instincts seem to play perfectly into wielding his family sword. It was almost like he had used it time and time again.

Maybe that had something to do with the _**VOICES**_...)

-Did he have the backing of his family? No. They would always treat him like glass, like he was brittle and ready to crack at any moment. And did he have any formal training certificates? According to his transcripts, he did. In reality, not so much.

So what did he have?

He only had his sword, and the will to keep going. To honour his family. To bear their legacy, and to be worthy of them.

For all of his life, he had been told of the valiant adventures and heroics of his ancestors. From the wartime charges of his great-grandfather, Julius Arc, to the awesome power of Reinhart Arc, to the leadership of Jeanne d'Arc, to the very first bearer of the Arc name, Joan of Arc. All of them were some of the greatest heroes of Remnant, and all of them had brought the greatest honours and valiant tributes to the name of Arc.

What had he done to honour this great legacy, that he had been taught and learnt so much about?

Nothing. Nothing at all.

No more.

He wanted to bring honour to his family name. He wanted to live up to the great legacy that they had established. But most of all, he wanted to know that when he died, his ancestors would be smiling down upon him, pleased with the good work that he had done.

And so here he was, prepared to learn how to be a Huntsman, and most of all, how to be a hero.

Because he wanted to be able to look his long gone family in the eye when he finally met them.

And if he died being a hero?

Then it would be a fine death indeed.

And so, he cracked his neck, and smiled for the first time since he had gotten here. Beacon would teach him everything that he needed to know. Sure, he would have to study and train a lot more in order to catch up with everyone else, and put so much more effort into every single subject here as he could, but Beacon would teach him everything that he needed to know. It was their job, after all.

He'd just have to take the initiative a lot more.

So, with a fresh new smile, and replenished hopefulness in the situation, and praying to every possible god out there that he wasn't about to screw everything up and get himself thrown into prison for all of this, he took a step forward-

"Hey, wait up!"

-And immediately stopped in place, an eyebrow raised in confusion at whoever had just yelled out to... Was it him that whoever that was just yelled out? He didn't know.

And so, to gain some confirmation as to what was going on, he turned himself around and-

{CRASH}

-Was slammed into by what appeared to be a red and black missile right into the gut, sending him flying down to the ground with a resounding-

{THUD}

-Yeah, that.

"AUGH! OW!" Jaune went as he collapsed to the ground, letting out a pained, "Ow..." at the sudden missile that had collided with him at the speed of a bullet, only to lift his cloaked head up from the ground, and see-

"Owwie…"

-A smaller girl with black to red hair, dressed in an equally black and red gothic getup, with a red hood and a red folded weapon strapped to her back, nursing her head with one hand, whilst also pushing herself off of him with the other.

The red hooded girl looked down at him, and then went, "...Er, hi?"

"He- Ow! Hello", he painfully said back.

"Ah! Oh god!" the red hooded girl went as she jumped off of him and clamped her hands together, "I am so sorry I have no idea what I doing well actually I do ecause you reminded me of someone but then I ended up slamming into you with the force of a God Grimm and now you're on the floor and I'm rambling and-"

"Ruby", a voice from behind them, belonging to a girl with long blonde hair and lilac eyes, who looked like she could pass off as Jaune's sister if she tried, called out to the smaller girl, "Use your words."

"Oh god, sorry! I'm so so sorry!" the girl now identified as 'Ruby' went, as she pulled off a comical salute with a shaking smile, and went, "I'm Ruby Rose! Nice to meet you!"

Jaune looked at her and tilted his head to the side in confusion. He had never had someone so eager to meet him before, which was certainly an alien feeling if there ever was any-

(He had a lot of people crash into him, though. Well, not a lot of people, per say, but his sisters were really affectionate people, so he had long since gotten used to people slamming themselves against him to say hello.)

-But what was even more alien about it was... Well, that it was a girl of all people taking her time to say hello to him. The only girls that had ever done that to him were his family members, so to say that he was completely unsure as to what to say right now would be the accurate statement.

For a single second, he spared a glance over to the girl with the mane of sun-kissed hair behind her, who just looked at him with that familiar expression of 'Please just let her have this'. It was the same kind of expression that his sisters would give people whenever he tried to talk to them.

So, with that, he awkwardly held out his hand to 'Ruby Rose', let her take it, and began to shake it vigorously as he then went, "Er, um, h-hi, I'm- I'm Jaune. Jaune Arc."

"Er, hi, I'm Ruby Rose! Nice to meet you!"

"Er, okay, and I'm- Er, I'm Jaune Arc."

"I'm Ruby Rose! Nice to meet you!"

"Y-You said that 3 times!"

Yeah, well, you, er, you said it twice!"

"Yeah but you still said it 3 times."

"D-Did I?"

"Er, yeah, yep. Yes, yes you- You did. Yes you did."

"Oh, er, cool! Wait, no, not cool. Is it cool? I don't know if it's cool."

"I don't know either."

"If it's cool?"

"Nope."

"Cool?"

"Er…"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

The blonde girl behind them slapped her palm to her face, "Only you could possibly find someone as socially awkward as you, Ruby..."

"Yaaaannnng!" Ruby whined to the girl- 'Yaaaannnng', apparently- Before letting go of Jaune's hand and saying, "Please don't tease me in front of-"

"Your new friend?" she smiled.

"Staaarrreee…"

"Easy, girl", the blonde went, before wheeling over to Jaune and holding out a hand of her own as she then said, "Sup, I'm Yang. Yang Xiao Long. Nice to meet you."

"...Er…", Jaune got out uncomfortably (Yeah, he was definitely not used to women coming onto him like this. Or anyone coming onto him like this. Or anyone in general), Before deciding to take the hand, and went, "Er, hi. Hello. I'm, er, I'm- Woah!"

He was not prepared for how harsh her grip was. Or how eager she was to shake his hand because damn she had a grip! It was like she was trying to crush every bone in his hand!

"Nice to meet ya, Jauney Boy!" 'Yang Xiao Long' chirped, before finally releasing his hand- Allowing Jaune to grasp it in his other and try to sooth and rub the pain away futilely- And then went, "You might've heard of me! I am that awesome, of course!"

"...Er, no, I've never heard of you", Jaune muttered, "Sorry..."

"...Well, you might've heard of my dad's company!" Yang proudly recovered, puffing her modest chest out with pride as she then went, "X.L. Valerian Securities! The biggest and baddest group of wolves this side of Remnant!" there was a long pause, before, "And by Wolves, I mean Huntsmen, of course. Just to make that clear."

"...No, I've... I've never heard of those guys, either... Sorry."

There was another long pause as Yang just looked at him with a blank expression, before Ruby turned to her and stuck her tongue out petulantly.

"Knock it off, you little twerp", Yang just jovially responded, having immediately recovered from her disappointment, before flicking Ruby in the face with another force to send her back a step and-

"OW!"

-End up biting her own tongue from the recoil, which looked like it heard quite a bit. However, judging from the then hardened stare that Ruby gave her friend, it looked like she recovered quickly from it.

Jaune gave them a few more moments to continue on with their antics, before he then finally addressed the elephant in the... Courtyard? Probably. Whatever. He then asked, "Er, sorry for sounding... 'Brusque'? Is 'Brusque' the right word? Sorry for my brusqueness, but... Is there something that you want from me- I mean, is there something that I can help you with, because, well, no one's really went out of their way to run up and try to talk to me before, so, unless you've been dazzled by my handsome looks, or something… You know."

The 2 of them looked to each other, a more serious look coming over their faces, before they both turned to him, and Ruby, with a nervous twitch about her, and after pressing her palms together awkwardly, then said, "Well, er... Yeah, there is..."

"It's about your cloak", Yang got in with.

Jauen blinked. His cloak? What about it, "My secu- My cloak?"

"...You were about to say 'Security blanket', weren't you?"

"...Yeah", so what if it was his favourite cloak, and so what if sometimes he used it like a blanket. It was his cloak, dammit! He could do whatever he wanted with it.

Yang stifled a chuckle, before going, "Yeah, your cloak... It's just-"

"The emblem", Ruby cut in with, surprising them both, "On the back of your cloak. The gold rose."

He tilted his head to the side, before pulling the back of his cloak to him, and looking at the emblem on the back, "Oh yeah, that... I don't know why, but I... Well, I just felt like stitching that on, one day. Don't know why. I guess I was in a decorative mood, and a rose was the first thing to come to mind", his mother had taught him how to sow in his past time. Hey, it paid to have a talent.

"Well, yeah, sure, but", Yang went, rubbing her side, before she then went, "It's just that... That rose... It's the same emblem as my little sisters insignia."

"Huh?" Jaune went, _They're sisters?_ he thought to himself, before another more immediate thought came to him, _Wait, our insignia? Mine's a golden double rainbow, what are they... Oh..._

Sure enough, Ruby showed him the silver emblem on her belt, and indeed, it was the exact same shape and style as the emblem on his cloak, to the exact same details and weavings. The only difference between them was the colour, Jaune's being gold, and Ruby's being silver.

That was... That couldn't just be a coincidence, could it?

"I... Wow", Jaune muttered to himself, "That's... That's something, alright..."

"Yeah, but... White cloak... Rose emblem", Ruby began, an uncertain quiver on her lips as she then said, "It's the same as... The same as my... Our mum. Our mum wore a white cloak, and had the- Had the same insignia as me..."

 _…Oh_ , Jaune thought to himself, _Her mother... Was she... Not around anymore?_

Yang looked to her sister, "Ruby..."

"Did you...", Ruby began, pointing to him limply, "Do you... Know someone called Summer Rose? Do you... Do you know her?"

Summer Rose.

Something inside of his chest panged, right in the middle of his heart. He had no idea what it was, but for some reason, it felt... Familiar. Like he had heard it before.

Even though he did not remember hearing that name once in his life.

"I'm sorry, but I...", he slapped the side of his head, trying to regain equilibrium over himself, "I feel like I should know it, but I... I swear, I feel like I know it, but I... I'm sorry, but I've never heard that name before."

Yang blinked, and then so did Ruby, "But... You're wearing the same type of... You're carrying the same insignia as her...", her eyes were beginning to wet with tears.

"I'm sorry, I just...", he hit the sides of his head again, "I feel like I should know her, but... But I don't. I've never heard of her before... I'm sorry..."

"...Okay... That's okay..."

Yang blinked, "Ruby-"

But she was already gone. In her place was a fluttering cloud of fading rose petals.

_What the... What the hell was... How did she do that?_

Jaune was broken out of his awestruck thoughts by Yang invading his vision, a sharp, angry look on her face, and eyes that had changed from lilac to red, flickers of light lifting off from her mane of hair-

_Wait, how was she able to do that?!_

-And went, "You sure you don't know who Summer Rose is? I'll be more than happy to jostle a few memories loose, if you'd like", to her sides, her hands flexed, and then balled into fists.

"I-"

"Don't give me that 'I have no idea what you're talking about' horseshit", she growled out, showing her teeth and bearing her fangs, "You're wearing the same type of cloak as her, same colour as well. I'd put it down to a coincidence if you didn't have the exact same fucking emblem as her stapled to your back", she walked right up to him, and her eyes invaded his vision, burning so bright red that they were almost glowing, "Ruby's mother... My mum... She's been missing for more than 10 fucking years. She's presumed dead. And yet here you are, with the same fucking getup as her, and the same fucking rose emblem."

Her hand reached over to Jaune's shirt collar, and grabbed hold of it.

"So you tell me, Jaune Arc: Do. You. Know. Summer. Rose?"

There was an even longer pause between them, before Jaune looked at her pleadingly, and said honestly, "I swear, Yang, I've- I've never heard anyone called that before, and I've never met anyone with a white cloak or rose emblem before- I feel like I should. I feel like", he rapped his knuckles against the side of his head thrice times, and then continued, "I feel like I should know that name. I feel like deep down, I know that name from somewhere, but I..."

He looked at her with an honest expression of confusion and fear.

"I don't know. I swear, I don't know."

The world around them seemed to freeze, as if time itself had been paused. There was nothing to be hurt except their breathing, which itself was soft and shallow, barely a murmur against the silent wind.

Yang paused, and closed her eyes, tilting her head down, and taking in several breaths.

…

Her hand shot out to his throat and squeezed, forcing him down onto his knees as her other hand wheeled back for a punch that never came, her knuckles whitening under her glove as her eyes opened up, burning such a crimson red. She was choking him, so much so that he could hardly breathe.

"If you're lying... You die. Remember that."

And with that, Yang let go of Jaune's throat, and let him fall to the floor, gasping for air as he massaged his neck, not having enough time to look at his former captor, before finally looking upwards from the ground, and seeing that Yang Xiao Long had long since strutted away, leaving him all alone in the courtyard.

Just like always.

He tucked his knees to his chest, and sighed to himself.

"Great job, Jaune… You blew it again..."

He looked down to the cloak on his arms, and sighed again, before taking it off, and stuffing it back into his bag.

Maybe it would do to not have it on him.

* * *

_Summer Rose._

He found himself pondering over the name for the rest of the day, trying to figure out where the heck he had heard that name before, even if he had ever heard that name before, so much so that he would've missed Headmaster Ozpin's speech in the auditorium if his tapping of the mic hadn't caught his, and everyone else's, attention.

(Thank goodness that that Huntsman and Huntress team (Coffee, was it? C-F-V-Y. Yeah, Team CFVY, was what they were called) Had given him directions when he had asked, otherwise he would've been super lost. Seriously, why did this place have to be so big?)

"I'll... Keep this brief. You have travelled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

Jaune blinked. Was... Was Ozpin directing that at him?

Nah, couldn't be. That was just egotistical of him to think.

…

Or was it?

He didn't give much more thought to it as he listened to the next professor to take the stand, a stern looking woman with blonde hair, green eyes, a white and black dress with a black and purple cape, and a somehow intimidating looking riding crop in her hands, and heeded her instructions to meet at the ballroom later in the night. Until then, he had some time to wander and wonder.

_Summer Rose..._

Dammit, he must've heard it from somewhere before. He must've seen a woman or a person with a white cloak and a rose emblem before, surely! Yang was right, him having the exact same emblem as Ruby, all the way down to the specific details, was just too big of a coincidence, even if it wasn't his official emblem.

But, no matter how hard he tried, he could never recall anyone else over than him wearing anything resembling a cloak at all, least of all if it was white. Hell, he couldn't remember anyone at all with any kind of flower emblem either! It was ridiculous, his mind was just continuously going around in circles and circles.

And yet, there was always this lingering feeling in the back of his mind- This gnawing sensation- That was continuously telling him that he had heard that name before, even though he clearly couldn't. It was this angry sensation- This ravaging familiarity- That was screaming at him that he knew who she was, he knew her name, he was familiar with her but he couldn't remember why couldn't he remember her _**WHY DON'T YOU REMEMBER ME-**_

He was broken out of his mindless wander by another person. More specifically, he ended up bumping into someone as he winded around one of the corners in the empty corridor that he was walking through, and landing hard on his bum.

"Ow!" Jaune whisper-yelled as he got up to rub his backside, before looking down at the girl (Aw, crud, these first impressions just keep getting worse and worse) That he had accidently knocked over- A tall, athletically built woman with crimson red hair, emerald green eyes, and a red and bronze outfit- And held out an apologetic hand to her, "Oh gods, I am so sorry about that. I was- I was lost in my own thoughts, is all, and... Er, yeah, I-I guess."

"Oh, it's fine, it's quite alright", the girl said as she took his hand and allowed herself to be pulled up to her feet, before apologetically going, "I'm sorry, I should've been looking where I was going."

"No no, it- It's fine", Jaune went, rubbing the side of his arm as he went, "Yeah, I should- Sorry, I'm just... I've been making the worst first impressions today, er… I'm sorry, what's your name?"

The girl paused, and bit her lip in contemplation. Jaune figured that she didn't want to tell him her name because of, you know, first impressions, and all, but then she defied his expectations and went with a friendly smile, and went, "Pyrrha. Pyrrha Nikos."

He blinked. Well, maybe he hadn't made that bad of an accidental first impression on her as he had though, as he got out a smile himself, and went, "Well, Miss Pyrrha Nikos, I'm Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls off of the tongue, ladies love it."

'Pyrrha' gave him a look.

"...At least, I hope they do! Maybe. I don't know. My mum always tells me that they will, so... Yeah", Jaune went, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly as he thought to himself, _Recover. Recover yourself, dammit! Don't make even more of a fool of yourself than you already are!_ before he coughed into his hand for show, and went, "So, er, you, um... You doing good? Or... Something?"

"...Well, yes, I suppose", Pyrrha went, looking to the side for a second, before going, "I was just... Trying to find a place for myself, is all. It can get quite... Crowded in new places."

Jaune realised that this was her telling him to buzz off, and went, "Oh, er, in that- In that case, I'll-"

"I hope you aren't bothering Miss Nikos too much, Mr Arc."

The both of them blinked, and then looked to the side to see the stern looking teacher with the blonde hair, glasses, and riding crop from before, holding a scroll in her other hand that was tilted downwards to the floor, though Jaune still couldn't see what was on it from the angle that he was facing.

"Oh, er, w-wait, no, I wasn't", he went as he raised his hands in surrender, looked at Pyrrha, and then at the teacher, and went, "I was just... I'll just go- I'll get going."

"Wait, Jaune-"

But it was too late, as Jaune was already hurrilly making his way down the corridor, and out of the sight of both of them. As he went, he chastised himself continuously, Idiot, idiot, idiot. Can you please not keep screwing up your first impressions like that all of the time? What is wrong with you?

If he had been more inquisitive with what was on the stern looking teacher's phone, he would've seen his face on it, and a note attached to it as well.

_Jaune Arc = Possible undiagnosed case of schizophrenia_

* * *

"What're you writing?"

Ruby looked over to Yang as they both laid in their sleeping bags, now changed into their pyjamas, as was everyone else in the ballroom as all 2000 initiates crammed themselves like sardines into the giant chamber, almost like an assembly hall, and changed into their sleeping clothing, some of the stuff that they were wearing being too much...

Sometimes not enough. _Brr…_

Luckily, the nudists and almost nudists were herded away into another room, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Some people, dang it.

Ruby shook the horrifying memory from her mind, and turned back to the letter that she was writing, "I'm sending something back to the gang back at Signal. Or, at least to my teachers... Or at least to Uncle Qrow and Dad. They deserve to know what's going on, at least. Plus, I'm sure that they'd want me to tell them about how Beacon's going for me."

"Hmph, sure thing", Yang smiled, "And what about all of your friends back at your old school?"

Ruby looked at her, then looked down, and sighed out, "What friends?..."

"...Hey, c'mon, don't be like that", Yang went as she patted her on the shoulder, "You'll make some friends here. Heck, everyone in here is a potential friend. You just haven't met them yet."

"That's easy for you to say, you know", Ruby pointed out without any real bite, "You're Yang Xiao Long, super duper popular girl who gets along well with everyone! Heck, you even get some of the friends that you had in Signal over here, now!"

"Oh come on, Ruby, they were your friends too."

"No, Yang, they were your friends. I was just the tagalong little sister."

"Hey, don't sell yourself so short, squirt. Look, if I just call them over, I'm sure that- Oh, speaking of which!" Yang looked up and pressed her hands to her mouth, and went, "Hey Sky! Dove! Russel!"

The 3 boys in question all looked at her, smiled, and waved, and it was the one with the neon green mohawk- Russel, she believed his name was- Who then called out and said, "Hey, Yang! How you doing? Looking for some-"

"Still not a chance, Russel!"

"What, why not?!"

"The mohawk, dude!"

"...", he patted his mohawk sadly, "It's my signature look, man. I can't just get rid of it, it's like, my one defining trait as a person", Dove just patted him comfortably on the shoulder in sympathy.

"Ahh, those guys", Yang wistfully muttered, before looking at Ruby and innocently going, "What was it that you were saying, sis?"

"...Forget it", Ruby said in a grumpy tone, before looking to the side, to see a crowd gathering in the middle of the room.

In had strutted Pyrrha Nikos, 4-time winner of the Mistral Regional Tournaments and Pumpkin Pete mascot, apparently having been looking for a place to sleep as well, what with the sleeping bag in her hand and in her nightly clothes. However, a crowd of eager Huntsmen and Huntresses, including a very eager looking ginger jock, began to accost her and try to grab her attention. The ginger jock was especially enthusiastic.

He was... Looking quite forceful about it.

But, ultimately, Pyrrha, looking rather uncomfortable at the attention she was getting, just smiled (It looked fake), Said her apologies, and walked away, and out of the room, trying to lose the crowd that was following her whilst also trying not to show that she was trying to loose them. Behind them, a white haired girl in a blue gown had tried to talk to her, but failed, and slunk her head down, before going back to her sleeping bag.

 _They..._ , Ruby began in her mind, _They both looked so sad..._

"Pyrrha Nikos, huh?" Yang Xiao Long went as she eyed her retreating form, before smiling and going, "I can take her, easy."

"Yang..."

"What, I can! Do you really- Hey!" Yang went as that ginger jock from before stomped away to his spot right before them, almost stepping on Ruby's unfinished letter- In fact, it looked like he had been aiming his foot down at it, but missed- And trotting off with a growl, "Jerk", Yang muttered to himself.

Ruby turned to her, "Do you know him?"

"No, but I know his type, already", Yang went, "Dumb lug with more brawn than brains. Has a constant need to prove his own masculinity by acting like a dick-"

"Swear."

"-To everyone. In other words, the typical school bully", Yang growled again, "You'll find those guys everywhere."

The door to the ballroom opened up, and Ruby wasn't sure as to why her attention had been drawn to this instead of all of the other times, but when she looked up, she felt both pleased and saddened by who was coming through.

Jaune Arc, the boy that she had chased down and then run away from unfairly earlier in the day. He had removed his cloak, and from the looks of it, he had shoved it in his bag. She wasn't sure as to the reasoning behind it, but she doubted that it was anything malicious. He was hugging his rolled up sleeping bag closed to his chest, and looking around wearily. It was as if he was expecting something bad to happen.

But what drew her attention more was the way that his lips were moving. It wasn't a constant stream of nervous muttering at his situation, but from the looks of it, a one sided conversation. He would take pauses in the middle of his mumbles, scrunch up his face at a sound that wasn't there, and then continue on.

Was he talking to himself? Was he imagining someone there?

Jaune gave a quick glance, to Ruby, and silver met blue met silver. He looked away, his face troubled, and he rapped his knuckles against his head as if he was trying to loosen a memory or forcefully recall something.

_I swear, I feel like I know it, but I... I'm sorry, but I've never heard that name before._

Ruby blinked, and then felt her own face sadden as well.

She shouldn't have run away from Jaune earlier in the day. She shouldn't have done that to him. That was a terrible thing to do. She should've stuck around more. Running away like she had done... That had been a terrible reflex, brought about by negative emotions.

As it turned out, the topic of her mother was a sort of trigger for her, at least when it delved more into the morbid than the positive. In her experience, Ruby had always found it easier to just... Not talk about it. To just focus her mind on other things and other people.

It was just easier that way.

Ruby bit her lip, and then made a move to get up. Wherever he knew his mother or not, Jaune still deserved someone to talk to. He looked like he really needed it.

Yang's hold on her arm stopped her.

"Yang-"

"He's not worth it, Ruby. The bastard isn't worth it."

"Yang-"

"He knows something about Mum. I don't care how many times he tries to deny it, but-"

"I don't think he's lying about Mum."

Yang looked at her, "What?"

"He was earnest, Yang. When we were talking to him, he was being earnest. He was telling the truth."

"How do you know?"

"I just...", how did Ruby know? Why was her gut telling her that he was telling the truth, even though there wasn't any evidence to support it, "I just do."

"...I don't", Yang muttered as she pulled her down, "I already told him that if he's lying, he dies."

"Yang!"

"He's wearing your fucking insignia, Ruby!" she hissed to her younger sister, "Down to the exact same details, and he's wearing the same type of cloak as Mum did! I don't give a shit as to how many times he'll lie about it! Tomorrow, I'm getting the answers we want, even if I have to beat the shit out of him to do so."

"Yang, you can't just-"

"It's our mother, Ruby!"

"Yang, you can't just-"

She was stopped by the sight of the ginger jock from before, with a brutish smile on his face, approaching Jaune, the latter looking on nervously, only to rip his sleeping bag from his arms, and throw it back at him harshly.

The latter boy stumbled back, but didn't fall to the ground, merely keeping his returned bag tightly gripped in his arms.

The ginger jock, realising that he was more resilient than he had assumed, huffed in annoyance, but realised that they were in a room full of people, and so stalked away, content with what he had already done.

No one stood up to help him.

"Ugh", Yang went as she kept Ruby where she was, "I hate people like him..."

 _Then why aren't we doing anything about it?_ Ruby thought, _Aren't we meant to stop people like him from doing that kind of stuff? Or is this something that I'm just too young to understand?_

And yet, Ruby did not move.

"Go to sleep, Ruby", Yang went, "We'll talk more about this in the morning."

And she did as asked, as she watched Jaune find a place in the corner for himself, tucking himself away into his sleeping bag and continuing on his one sided conversation, now more frightful than ever.

And yet Ruby did not do anything. She simply laid in her sleeping bag, and stared up at the ceiling.

Why hadn't she done anything? Why wasn't she doing anything? Why was she still just laying in her bed, letting injustice continue on? Wasn't she supposed to be a hero? Isn't that what she was here for?

Would this continue on? Would she stay like this?

If a person needed help, would she stay true to her morals and help them?

Or would she turn the opposite way?

Ruby curled herself up into a ball, and, not for the first time, felt so helpless because of decisions of her own making, and, despite her sister being there with her...

So utterly alone.

* * *

Where had all of that confidence at the beginning of the day gone? Had it even been there to begin with?

Jaune didn't know.

What he did know, however, was the familiar feeling of being alone.

And Jaune was so very used to being alone.

It was clear, from such a young age, that he was... Different to all of the other children his age.

The voices in his head- The spectres in his vision- Had always been there, always there, always talking, always muttering away.

And he had talked back to him.

He had become known as the freak with the imaginary friends. That one weirdo who would talk to himself blissfully in the middle of the day, who would ask people about friends that he promised were right besides them.

He became known as the attention seeker. As the lonely kid who caused trouble (He never did) All because he wanted people to notice him. The bad egg. The one that spoiled.

His teachers hadn't helped at all in those regards.

And then, the spectres of friends that his mind had made faded away into nothingness.

Now all that was left were voices. Voices, voices, and nothing but voices. All of them maddening, all of them proving them right, no matter how sweet and caring their words were.

The children around him called him mad. Insane. A lunatic. That one freak with the personality disorder.

And nobody wanted to be with the freak, less they catch something. His own sisters had been the only company that he had had, and even then they would give him those strange looks that even now he couldn't understand.

He had gotten used to bullies as well. That ginger jock? That was nothing-

He slapped the sides of his head, breaking his trail of thought.

"Stop it, stop it, you idiot", he muttered to himself, raking his knuckles against the sides of his head as he then went, "Goddammit, get over yourself. There are other people out there that have had it worse of than you. That gives you no right to wallow in your own misery like a pathetic piece of garbage."

It was true though, wasn't it? Jaune wasn't that naïve to not know that there were terrible things happening across the world to people that paled in comparison to him. Children being made orphans by horrible attacks on their homes. Families loosing their loved ones. Families being hurt by their loves ones. People being abused just because of their race, and so much more.

What was his problems compared to theirs? Nothing, so why should he bother mopping around about it? He was going to help them, just like his ancestors did. He couldn't weight them down with his own issues. They didn't deserve that.

_**BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN THAT THEY'RE NOT WORTH TALKING ABOUT...** _

Jaune winced, "Go away...", he muttered.

_**JAUNE-** _

"You're not real."

_**PLEASE JAUNE. LET US BE THERE FOR YOU.** _

He hiccupped, "Just go away. Please..."

There was silence in that pressing weight on his mind, and then there was nothing but silence once more.

Sometimes he really hated the voices in his head.

He curled up onto himself and hugged his jeaned trousers close. He hadn't changed into his bunny onesie. That would've been even more social suicide now than ever.

His eyes closed, and he finally drifted off to sleep.

A hand stroked over his sleeping form, and the one whom it belonged to smiled.

"Hello again, master."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are, the official first chapter of Cult of Silver!
> 
> God, I've taken so much inspiration from Re:Zero when making this. Like, seriously, guess who Ryuzu and Anima are based on!
> 
> So yeah, I hope you are all enjoying it so far! I've got to say, I'm really liking this as well, so I can only hope that it goes good as well!
> 
> Now, onto the POVs: This fic is mainly going to be focused around Ruby and Jaune. They are going to be our 2 central characters, as we go on this incredible journey with them, and I'm really excited for it! I can only hope that you are as well.
> 
> Now, onto Jaune's character in this fic: Yes, he is going to be a stronger and smarter Jaune, but only by a bit, and there are some drawbacks.
> 
> First of all, Jaune's going to be stronger and better at fighting, but he's not going to be so OP like in a lot of fics where he can just stare down Salem, who's using the equivalent of 6 orbital cannons to kill him, and just go all Adam Sandler and say, "This is how I win", but is going to be more, "Ha! I killed that Beowolf! Pyrrha, did you see- Oh god, Mr Goliath, please don't kill me!"
> 
> And to add onto that, he's going to be smarter, but not so much as he can play circles around Ozpin and Salem and make them his bitches, as he does more with making up for his own failings and remembering to pack essential supplies for their trips out. Essentially, he's going to be more aware of himself.
> 
> And as for his semblance, well... It's complicated.
> 
> And to add onto that, I've just gone and given his schizophrenia!
> 
> OR IS IT?!
> 
> Let me remind you, that Joan of Arc supposedly heard voices in her head, telling her to do good...
> 
> Just saying.
> 
> And as for the angst that I've added into him because of his schizophrenia, well, I was, and still am, really worried about how that was going to turn out, and if I made it good enough.
> 
> I'm looking for angst.
> 
> I'm not looking for wangst.
> 
> That is the last thing that I want: Wangst. Jaune's little speech about ignoring his own problems at the end was partly because I wanted to acknowledge that he's not the only one with issues, and that he's affirming that even in the canon, there are people who have lived worse lives than he currently has.
> 
> Even if he's doing it in an incredibly unhealthy way.
> 
> Anyways, with all of that said and done, stay safe, stay healthy, and I shall be seeing you all next time!
> 
> Titanmaster117 out!


	3. Beacon part 2: Better Second Impressions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On the day of Initiation, new friends are made. Some more forcefully than others.
> 
> But all of them without regrets.

**Main theme:** _[Death Hymn by Lucas King](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmTN8wu2AM8) _ **  
** **Arc theme:** _[Rise from the Destiny 2 soundtrack](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=intmEEVphig)   
_ **Theme:** [ _Reservations_ _from the Destiny 2: Beyond Light soundtrack_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_ygy2QfJwM)

* * *

_It would always begin and end the same._

_Every time, he would be standing in a field of grass that stretched on forever over rolling hills of nothingness, only interrupted by a silver castle that stretched up high into the sky, it's central tower almost touching the non-existent clouds and splitting the air in twain like a knife through butter. The sky would be clear and infinite, and a plethora of colourful nebulas and cosmoses would fill the universe beyond the blue veil of the atmosphere. The air smelt like the sweetest of roses, and he could even taste the sugar like air on his tongue. Fresh water coloured in rainbow patterns and glistening in the sunlight flowed through small streams up and down the mountains, and great flat-topped mountains with mountainous bottoms floated through the air, with cities of stone and cobble and Verdigris and veins and shawls of moss, flanked by trees of pink petal blossoms, and surrounded by fields of fresh grass and growth._

_This was heaven, surely._

_And every time, he would be surrounded by figures, big and small, numbering in the dozens, all of them staring at him with emotions that he couldn't register or understand. Not fully. Not yet._

_And all of them were made up of nothing but white light._

_And each and every single time, they would chant to him. They would remind him of his own insanity with their words, and they chanted and chanted 2 simple words:_

**_WAKE UP_ **

**_WAKE UP_ **

**_WAKE UP_ **

**_WAKE UP_ **

**_WAKE UP_ **

**_WAKE UP_ **

**_WAKE UP_ **

**_WAKE UP_ **

**_WAKE UP_ **

**_WAKE UP_ **

**_WAKE UP_ **

**_WAKE UP_ **

**_WAKE UP_ **

**_WAKE UP_ **

**_WAKE UP_ **

_"Wake up, Jaune."_

* * *

His eyes woke up to darkness.

Jaune wasn't being metaphorical as much as he was being literal. It was still night out, and already he was wide awake. He checked the alarm on his scroll. 4AM, A.K.A. way to early in the morning.

He couldn't sleep, that much was certain, at least. Initiation hadn't even started yet, and his nerves were already shot up.

Okay, that last part wasn't completely unusual for him, but still.

He needed to gather his mind. He needed to remind himself that he was still sane.

Just like always.

Pulling himself out of his sleeping bag- He still had his original outfit on, at least. Just sans the cloak in his bag- He began to tiptoe across the ballroom, over many sleeping bodies, blissfully unaware of the person walking over them. Through the darkness, aided by the barely enough moonlight that peered through the grand windows in the walls, Jaune slunk his way to the far wall, through the corridor, and into the men's toilets.

Letting the lights automatically turn on in the school toilets, he firstly relieved himself in one of the toilets, and spent up to 3 minutes scrubbing his hands clean with soap. He never did trust public loos, after all. They were always filled with more germs than was needed.

He took a moment afterwards to look at himself in the wide mirror on the wall, to see the young, still naïve face staring back at him, in an incomplete set of armour, a pair of jeans and a hoodie, and nothing but a sword and blind hope.

So far, he hadn't been kicked out yet. He hadn't been hounded on by by any of the teachers, and even though that stern looking one had looked like she wasn't pleased with him when he had been talking to that Pyrrha N-something person, she hadn't hunted him down across the school so that she could drag him away and throw him in a prison cell yet.

At least, she hadn't done so yet.

He slapped the sides of his head. No need to get so paranoid. Not yet at least, and not anymore than he already was. Right now, he just had to focus on getting through the school's initiation- Whatever the hell that was- And then somehow making it into Beacon proper.

No biggie.

No biggie at all.

…

Okay, maybe it was a biggie. Maybe it was a big biggie.

Jaune sighed to himself, which ended up coming out as a nervous shudder. Suffice to say-

**_STOP IT._ **

Damn, it was happening again.

He groaned, and clamped his hands onto his ears, his nails digging into his skin and leaving marks, "Go away."

**_WE DON'T WANT TO._ **

"Go away!"

**_WE'RE HERE WITH YOU, ALWAYS-_ **

"Get out of my- AUGH!"

{CRACK}

He was surprised by the fact that he had punched the mirror in front of him, and even more so by the fact that he had left a spiderweb shape of cracks that formed in the middle of the reflective glass.

He looked down at his hand, and saw that it was smothered in glass made cuts and slices. The glove part was nibbled and torn, and dribbles of blood were beginning to pour out of the cuts of his unprotected fingers.

Dammit. He really didn't need this right now.

He took a few steps back, and then made his way through to the door out of the toilets, opening it up and making his way out into the hallway, taking in a deep breath, and then tweezing a visible shard of glass that had made it into his finger.

He hissed as he pulled it out, flicking the glass bit into a nearby public bin, before pressing the palm of his other hand against his bloodying knuckles and-

"Hey."

-Jumping out of his skin with a very manly yelp, as he wheeled around to see the onyx haired boy with pink eyes from before, now dressed in what looked like the pyjama version of a traditional Mistralian yukata, accompanied by that ginger haired girl from before, now herself dressed in a black shirt with the word 'Boop' printed onto it, and a pair of pink shorts with white lightning bolts accenting it.

The pink haired boy blinked at Jaune's surprise, and then asked, "Can't sleep?"

"...No", Jaune said truthfully, "You?"

He pointed to his companion, "Nora can't sleep. And when Nora can't sleep, I can't sleep."

"Hey, I'm just so excited!" the cheery one- Nora- Went as she threw her arms out wide and went, "I mean, we're going to be able to kill as many Grimm as we want tomorrow! Or today, in fact! Just in a few hours! At least, I hope we are! I'd be shocked if we weren't! This is a school where we're going to be training to kill as many Grimm as we can't, so it'd be dumb if we weren't thrown into a pit and told to kill every Grimm that we see, right?"

"...Right", Jaune muttered out. This girl was one to look out for, it would seem.

The boy cocked his head to the side, pointed at his hand- Still being nursed in his other hand's palm- And asked, "What happened to your hand?"

"Huh?" Jaune went, before looking down at his hand, inspecting it as he pulled it out of his palm, and then hesitantly went, "I, er… I fell over?"

The boy then went, "You fell over and sent your hand into what sounded like a panel of glass? Because from what it sounded like from out here, you did just that."

"Er… I punched a mirror?" the pink-eyed boy raised an eyebrow, and Jaune withered, "...Please don't tell anyone, please. I only just got into this place, and it feels like my nerves are trying to murder me as violently and painfully as possible."

Nora smiled, and gave a thumbs-up, "Ah, don't sweat it, buddy! Me and Renny-"

"Ren and I."

"-Ain't no snitches! We've got your back", her face then changed into something more contemplative and serious, though, "But, are you... Are you sure that you're alright? No one else heard you, I think, but... You weren't sounding like you're at your best in there."

"...Yeah, I'm good. I'm alright", Jaune went, pressing his bloodying knuckles into his hand again as he then went, "I just... Got a few things going for me, is all... Is all..."

"...Alright then", Nora said, before looking back to 'Ren' (Not 'Renny' then, like he had speculated before) And going, "Hey, since we can't sleep, can we go down to the cafeteria? I think they might have coffee down there!"

"Nora, no. You're not allowed coffee", Ren reprimanded, "Do you remember what happened last time you had coffee?"

"No I don't!"

"I do", Ren's face suddenly turned even stiller than it was before, and a faraway look adorned his face as he looked off into the distance, "I do..."

Jaune queered his head at their antics, and then, summoning all of the willpower within him-

**_GO FOR IT._ **

-He went, "Hey, um... Is it... Is it alright if I follow- If I follow you guys? I need- Need someplace to wash my hands, and, well", he gestured his head to the bathroom, "Yeah..."

"Sure thing!" Nora chirped, whilst Ren just nodded.

"Ah, er, thanks, I mean-"

"New friend!"

"-Wait, whaaaaAAAAAUGH!"

That was the sound of an extrovert adopting an introvert.

"Aw, he's so awkward and punchy through windows-sy!" Nora went as she pulled the poor boy that was Jaune into a bone crushing hug, "Ren, can we keep him? Can we can we?"

"Augh, stop it! I do not consent! I do not consent!"

"Nora, he doesn't consent."

"Aw, phooey", Nora pouted as she then let go of Jaune, letting him fall limply on the floor, before grabbing him by the hand, and dragging him along with her down the corridor to the cafeteria, "Welp, c'mon then, new friend! A bold new friendship awaits!"

As he was dragged along limply, Jaune heard the voices in his head go off again with, **_I LIKE THIS ONE._**

**_OF COURSE YOU WOULD._ **

* * *

They finally found themselves within the barely lit cafeteria, only a few of the lights overhead and illuminating the vast dark world around them in long, stretching shadows. Everything looked so much more ominous in the dark-that-wasn't-completely-dark, like the shadows were just about to lunge out and snatch them away.

Maybe one day they would.

"The lights are on", Nora pointed out as she finally let go of Jaune, allowing the boy to get up and dust himself off, before she continued on with, "That must mean that- There!"

She pointed to the other side of the cafeteria, to see a red haired girl sitting by her lonesome, nursing in her hands a cup of... He couldn't tell from this distance, but it was a cup of something, alright.

Jaune blinked, and then remembered where he had seen that face before. It was that same girl that he had run into yesterday. Pyrrha... Something. Oh goodness, what was her last name?

**_NIKOS._ **

"Oh my god", Nora squealed next to him, "That's Pyrrha Nikos!"

Oh yeah, it was that. Thanks, Nora.

"Well, alright then, you guys... Er, do whatever you do, I guess", Jaune went as he began to trundle off, "I'm going to go, you know, wash my hands under a sink, or something", Ren gave him a nod in return, and with that, Jaune separated from them as they went to greet that Pyrrha Nikos woman, whilst he walked into the back of the kitchen, and began to run his hand under the sink's cold water.

A soft sigh escaped his lips as he felt the droplets of blood wash away from his hands under the cool water, and the dull ache from his hands left him as he quickly spared a moment to tweeze and pull out the last shard of reflective glass in his hands, tossing it into another bin nearby as he wetted his hands once more under the running tap, before turning the tap off and pressing his hands against a paper towel, soaking up all of the water on his fingers, before throwing it away.

He thought about looking for plasters in the kitchen, but decided that they would be better serving other people, and remembered that he had packed a spare few in his bag. With that, he walked out of the back of the kitchen, and into the wider cafeteria, skulking against the walls, and in the shadows, hoping that he wasn't seen by-

"Hey, new friend! Come join us!"

**_GO JOIN THEM._ **

**_GO JOIN THEM._ **

**_GO JOIN THEM._ **

**_GO JOIN THEM._ **

Dammit...

With a silent groan, he turned himself around, and hesitantly made his way towards the table that Nora, Ren, and Pyrrha were sharing. Did he really have to do this? Did he really have to socialise with people?

YES.

Shut up, voice.

Hesitantly, he sat down on one of the spare seats at the table, and internally winced as Nora then cheered, "Yay! New friend has joined us! Glad that you could join us, er... New friend's name?"

"Eh?" he went, before going, "Oh, er, it's- It's Jaune Arc."

"John Arc?"

"No, it's- It's Jaune, not John. J-A-U-N-E. There's no O in it. Apparently it's old Valerian for yellow."

"Oh", Nora went, before tilting her head to the side, and going, "Why not just call you John, then?"

He put his hands up, "I-I don't know. People make that mistake so many- So many times that I always thought that my parents should've just called me that. I didn't choose my name, that's on my mum and dad."

Not a complete lie, but not the complete truth either.

"Nora, be nice", Ren reprimanded her, "Don't go making fun of people's names."

"Oh, er, sorry", Nora went, before seemingly remembering something, and going, "Oh, er, sorry about calling you Vomit Boy, yesterday as well. That was mean of me?"

…When was that?

"When was that?" Jaune asked in confusion, not remembering what Nora was talking about.

Nora blinked, "Er, yesterday, when we were getting off of the airship, and you were-", she stopped, looked over to Pyrrha (Whom he had honestly forgotten was there), And went, "Yeah, you were practicing your acid spitting abilities."

"...Oh, that!" Jaune snapped his fingers as the memory came back to him. To be honest, he had totally forgotten about that. Other, more pressing matters had overtaken his memory, "Right, sorry, I forgot all about- Yeah, I forgot all about that. It's- It's no problem, that kind of stuff happens to me a lot", he probably shouldn't have added that part in, as he then backpedalled and went, "Er, the- I have motion sickness. That's- That's what I meant."

"...Okay then", Ren went after a few moment's silence, before gesturing to him, "Well, I am Lie Ren, and this", he gestured to Nora to his side, "Is my friend, Nora Valkyrie", the girl in question nodded with a grin.

"Oh, well, okay then", Jaune went, "Well, it's, er- It's nice to meet you, I guess, er, Lie and Nora."

'Lie' blinked, and Nora giggled.

"What? Did I- Did I do something wrong?"

"No no, it's nothing like that, it's just that my first name is 'Ren', not 'Lie'", Ren amended for him.

"Huh?"

"It's a tradition in rural Mistral", Nora jumped in with, "For families to have their last name before their first, instead of the opposite way around."

"Indeed", Pyrrha finally added into the conversation with, "In many parts of Mistral, families and collective wholes are considered more important than the individual person, and as such, the last name of a family is usually placed before the individual's name as a sign of this."

"Oh", Jaune went slowly, before looking at Ren and going, "Oh god I am so sorry, I didn't mean to disrespect you, or anything like-"

"It's quite alright, Jaune", Ren went, "Just like with your name, it seems, people make that mistake about mine all of the time."

"...Ah", Jaune sighed out, "Alright then", before turning finally to Pyrrha, and going, "And, um, it's- It's Pyrrha, er, Pyrrha Nikos, right? From yesterday- Oh, er, sorry about- About bumping into you and causing you trouble, yesterday, I just-"

**_STOP STUTTERING._ **

He slapped the side of his head gently, "Yeah."

"It's no problem, Jaune", Pyrrha smiled as she said this, "All was already forgiven."

"Oh, er, okay. That's cool, I guess."

Nora looked between the 2 of them, "You 2 know each other? Oh, secret lovers?" she went with a coy smile.

"What?! No! No no no! I just-", Jaune spluttered for a response as Pyrrha clammed up, before finally settling for, "I bumped into her into the hallway yesterday. That's it- That's it!"

"Aw, that's really it? Phooey", Nora muttered, before regaining her spirit and going, "Well then, anyways, how does it feel to have been rubbing shoulders with a celebrity?"

Pyrrha clamped herself up at this, and frowned at Nora for but a second, but Jaune interrupted any conversation that they were going to have with a confused look and a question, "Sorry, 'Celebrity'?"

The 3 of them blinked, and it was Ren this time who then gestured to Pyrrha and went, "This is Pyrrha Nikos."

"Yes."

"...Pyrrha... Nikos."

"...Yes?"

He was very confused right now.

"Never mind that", Pyrrha waved the both of them off with a smile, and then said, "I will admit, it is nice to be able to properly speak to you, Jaune. I know that my first impression didn't leave, well, pardon the repetition, but it didn't leave the best impression, did it?"

"Er-"

The door to the cafeteria opened up again, and the 4 at the table looked to see another new group of 4 enter into the cafeteria. The one leading them was... Yang Xiao Long? No, not Yang, now that he got a better look. This girl had green eyes, much shorter hair, what looked like incredibly sharp teeth, and a lion's tail trailing behind her. Not Yang then. He was a little bit thankful for that, to be honest.

Behind her, a trio of boys followed behind her. One of them was a skinny looking guy with just the ugliest neon green mohawk (Was it cruel of Jaune to say that he wanted to get a pair of scissors just to do the world a favour and cut it off? Sorry), Followed by a boy in a tan coloured shirt, and with brown hair and eyes that were so squinted they looked like they were closed, and a final boy with dark blue hair, wearing a black and grey shirt and trouser combo, all 3 of them looking equally frazzled and tired.

"C'mon, you 3", said the girl at the front, "Let's get a move on."

"Why? Why can't we sleep?" asked the mohawk boy, "I like sleeping. Sleeping is good."

"Oh, is that so? Then if you like sleep that much, then why did you 3 idiots decide to stay up all night, all the way up to 4-freaking-AM, just so that you could waffle on about whatever the hell it was that you were talking about?"

"""Er… """

"Exactly. If you won't let me sleep, then I won't let you sleep. Equivalent exchange, is it not?" the girl leading them chirped, before she turned her head to the table of 4 in the dimly lit cafeteria, and smiled, "Ah, here we go: 4 fellow insomniacs!" she tapped the arm of the boy closest to her, and went, "C'mon, let's go say hello!"

And with that, the 4 newcomers sauntered over to the occupied table, the familiar looking girl leading them as the boy in the black and grey getup put his hands to his mouth and squealed, "Oh my god guys, that's Pyrrha Nikos! That's-"

"Hey, down boy, down", the girl went to him with a wave, "I'm sure that she has to wipe her own butt as much as everyone else", and then turned to the 4 at the table, pointed to the spare seats near them, and asked, "Is it alright if we sit here?"

Pyrrha, who was blushing with embarrassment at the toilet joke that she made, nodded in turn, whilst Nora just laughed and went, "HA! No problem! I always welcome new friends to the fold!" Ren, in turn, nodded his agreement in silence, whilst Jaune just looked to the side in an equal amour of silence.

 _Do I really have to talk to even more new people?_ he thought to himself, before instinctively scooting to the side as the girl who looked suspiciously like Yang Xiao Long took the seat right next to- _Oh god please don't sit next to-_

She sat right next to him.

_-Me which is exactly what you're doing oh goddammit._

The girl in question looked towards him with a gentle smile, held out her hand, and said, "Hi, my name's Anima Senterra. You?"

_Oh god, I'm gonna have to actually talk to her. I would just like to not exist right now._

And yet, as he looked at her, and gazed deep into her forest green eyes, there was... There was a strange feeling in his gut about her. Like there was something just so hauntingly-

_**FAMILIAR** _

-Yet-

_**DIFFERENT** _

-About her, he could... He didn't know what it was. He didn't know why he was feeling this way about her, but still... It was just the strangest thing.

"Er, h-hi", he went as he took 'Anima's' hand, "I-I'm Jaune. Jaune Arc."

…

_**TALK TO HER.** _

"Er, sorry, I just...", he let go of Anima's hand as he rubbed the back of his head with his other, and then continued on with, "It's just... You, er, you remind me of-"

"Yang Xiao Long, right?" Anima asked. Jaune nodded in response, and her smile never waned, "Ah, it's fine, I get that a lot."

"Wait, do you?" the boy with the almost closed eyes and the tan shirt, "Because I don't think I've ever seen you around Signal anywhere before."

"You do know that your eyes are, like, so narrowed that they're practically closed, right?" the one with the ugly mohawk asked, unintentionally making everyone blanche just by waving it around, "But yeah, where were you in Signal? I don't remember you."

"Oh, I've been around Vale. She's rather well known in the city", Anima shrugged, "Well, her dad's company is rather well known within the city, at least", she turned back to Jaune, "Did she talk about it?"

"When- When she talked to me? Yeah, it's, er… It was", he wracked his brain to remember, "It was... X.L. Securities, right?"

"X.L. Valerian Securities, yeah", Anima said, "Though she's probably just playing it up."

"'Playing it'... You mean exaggerating, right?" Jaune asked, "Well, she did say that they were wolves, or something."

"'Biggest, baddest wolves in this side of Remnant', right?" the grey and black dressed boy asked and then scoffed, "Yeah, that's just her ego talking."

"Are these guys, like, really important, or super badass or something?" Nora chimed in with, "'Cause I've never heard of them before. Unless they're, like, top secret government spy agents of the government!"

"I must admit, I have never heard of this organisation either", Pyrrha then added in herself, "Are they important for the security of Vale?"

"If Yang was here, she would be telling you that", Anima went, evidently being the one to dominate the conversation, "But that's just her waxing her own ego."

"Yeah, that sounds right to me", the boy with the mohawk went, "It's her dad's business, X.L. Valerian Securities. She says that they're hot shit, but they're just a few Huntsman and ex-police teams that can be hired out for law enforcement. Cops for hire, basically."

"Heh, yeah", the boy in the grey and black getup went, "She makes it sound like they're the next Providence", he scoffed, "I'd like to see them kill a God Grimm anytime soon."

There was a pause, before Pyrrha went, "You know, I was once scouted by Providence. I believe that they're sponsoring me as well."

There was another pause, before the boy with the mohawk slapped his hands onto the table they were all sitting at, jumped up in excitement, and went, "Wha- You did!? You were?! Do you have a connection to them?! Do you have their contact information!?"

Pyrrha, who seemed to have a lot of patience for moments like this, calmly, if a bit awkwardly, replied with, "No, I don't. I don't personally, at least. That's all sorted by my manager."

"Oh, could you get them to forward an application to me, please please please please please!?" the mohawk boy cusped his hands together and begged, "Seriously, I'm, like, seriously their biggest fans, and I would do anything to join them, so if you could please pass my name down to them, that would be like the coolest thing ever! Please!"

…

"Oh, er, my name's Russel Thrush, by the way. That's the name that I need you to pass down."

"Um…"

Jaune waved his hand suddenly, quickly embarrassed at how he had called attention to himself, before stuttering out with, "Er, I don't think, er, I don't think that you can just... If these Providence guys are so important, then how can you be sure that they'll find the time to even, I don't know, listen to you, or something?"

'Russel' stopped in place, paused, and then looked upwards as if he was contemplating a great new revelation, before dropping his head down and going, "Aw, dammit... You might be right..."

"What? Oh, er, hey- Hey, man, I'm sure they... I'm sure someone will hear you", Jaune did his best to try and comfort the poor guy guy, and was currently failing at doing so, "I'm sure that... Er, yeah... Yeah..."

"Was that meant to be encouraging?" Russel asked him in a sudden deadpan tone, "My god, I was sad at first, but now I'm just depressed!" he slapped his head against the table and bemoaned, "Can I get some more encouraging words of comfort, please? I need something to even his out."

"Wait, no, I wasn't trying to- I wasn't trying to make you- To make you feel bummed out- Depressed!" Jaune exclaimed as he waved his arms about in a panic, "I mean, I was just- I'm sorry, I only wanted to-"

"Don't be sorry for him, he's just winding you up", Anima patted him on the back with, "Your kindness is greatly appreciated, though I'm sure that he won't say it himself."

"Hey..."

Anima just ignored him as she smiled- Her lion's tail swaying gently behind her- And then added on, "Best be careful, though: There are a lot of Providence fanboys in this school. With you going around and saying, 'Those Providence guys', people will get the impression that you've never heard of them before!"

"…Er…"

Everyone at the table blinked, and it was Nora who then cut in with, "Wait, you've never heard of Providence before?! But those guys are known in pretty much every Huntsman's circle! Heck, me and Ren-"

"Ren and I."

"-Were on our own for a lot of our lives, and even we know who they are!"

"Er…"

"Do you at least know what God Grimm are?! Wait, do you-"

Jaune stopped her by raising his hands to try and wave her down, "Look, guys, I was just- My family lives alone in a rural area, and we don't get out much. Or at least, they didn't let me out much. My parents were always pretty isolationist about their treatment of me."

"So", the boy with the squinted eyes asked, "You're a bumpkin?"

_You know, I have never been hurt by anything more utterly true._

**_GET OVER IT, YOU BIG BABY._ **

_Shut up..._

Jaune coughed into his hand, trying to rearrange his thoughts, before finally regaining equilibrium of them, and continuing on.

"Well, yeah, they always- I mean, to be fair, I didn't really take much interest in any political stuff, or politics in general, so I guess I just never noticed these guys, or whatever."

"Um, I guess that's a good point", the boy in grey and black went, before his eyes widened and then he looked at him, "Wait, did your parents-"

"I think that's enough with the personal questions", Anima gracefully rescued Jaune with as she lowered the boy in grey and black's hand with her own, and then continued with, "Let's just leave it until we've become proper friends, yeah?"

"...Well alright then", the boy in grey and black went, before letting his arm fall to his side with a sway.

Jaune just looked at Anima, _Ma'am, I have no idea who you are, but thank you for the gracious save._

He didn't notice Ren and Pyrrha stare at his still cutup fingers for a few moments, and then looked away.

"But still, you have no idea who Providence are?" Anima asked with a raised eyebrow, "That's new, even for..."

It was Jaune's turn to raise an eyebrow, "Ever for what?"

"Doesn't matter", Anima said as she then left the table-

"Wait, did I- Did I say something-"

-Only to grab a napkin and a pen from off of the side near the kitchen-

"Oh, right."

-And then sit back down in her seat, "Let me give you a history lesson."

"Aw, what?" Russel went as he let his head rest against the table with a despondent look, "Really? We're doing this now? I already know this stuff! I came here to kill Grimm, not hear about crap that I already know."

"Learning about our history and the world around us is an important part of being a Huntsman, Russel", Ren said, to the reluctant nodding of the 2 other boys at the table, "Besides, I am not entirely knowledgeable in what Providence is myself. When you live in the Grimmlands for a long period of time, you tend to hear conflicting stories about people and places."

The boy in grey and black looked like he wanted to ask what that meant, but was cut off by an oblivious Pyrrha as she then went, "I will admit, I haven't heard much of Providence either, despite being sponsored by them. I know that they're one of the most prolific Huntsman guilds in the world, but my parents... Well, they never wanted me to be a member of them."

"Seriously?" Nora asked with a questioning look.

"Yeah, isn't that a bit unfair?" asked the boy with the almost closed eyes- Jaune really needed to learn their names, but really didn't want to have to be the one to ask- Who was also trying to not freak out about how he was talking to Pyrrha, for some reason.

"My parents used to be part of a few Huntsman guilds, and are actually in charge of a rather prolific one at that-"

"Oh, the Night-Bat Stalkers, right?" Anima stopped whatever she was doodling onto her napkin as she asked that question, before starting up again with, "I heard that your family were the founders of it."

"Er, yes, all the way from the end of the Great War and the founding of the Huntsman system", Pyrrha said with a hint of pride, before it deflated slightly and went, "However, those guilds that my parents knew ended up being swallowed whole by Providence, and on top of that, they've been trying to buy up Huntsmen and shares from the Night-Back Stalkers for years now. To say that my mother and father aren't happy about it is an understatement. I probably wouldn't have been sponsored by Providence if my manager hadn't insisted that it would be beneficial for myself and the guild."

"Yes, well, Providence has a certain reputation for annexing entire guilds-worth of Huntsmen for their own causes, so it's understandable."

Jaune was broken out of his thoughts by a tap on his shoulder, and looked to his side to see Anima looking at him, and presenting him with the napkin that she had been drawing on. He took it into his hand, and caressed his thumb over what had been doodled onto it.

It was an emblem. Anima had drawn an emblem onto the paper. It was what looked like a decapitated dragon's head with a sword sticking through it, over a shield that was shaped much like his own.

"Providence's logo", Anime answered the unspoken question on his lips, and once she had his attention once again, she asked, "I assume that you've heard of the Grimm, correct?"

"Er, yeah", Jaune lied. His family had been very sheltering when he was growing up, not allowing him much contact with the outside world, and as for the earlier parts of his life...

Well, he didn't have that good of an education for a few good reasons.

_**SOMETHING THAT WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO CHANGE.** _

_**I HEAR YOU.** _

_**ME TOO.** _

"Then I'm also assuming that you've heard of the God Grimm?" Anima didn't give him any time to come up with an answer as she then continued, "According to the official Huntsman designation system for the Grimm, there are multiple tiers of Grimm that are categorised and sorted by threat level alone. Of course, at the bottom of that list, you have the most common and weakest variants, like the Beowolf, the Imp, the Beetle, the Creep, the Goblin, the Boarbatusk, so on, so forth. Still a threat, yes, but not too much of one to even the weakest of Huntsman. And then above that, you get newborn Ursa, Centinels, Ravagers, Theropods, and then above that you get Beowolf Alphas, matured Ursa, and so on, so forth."

A pause, and the information soaked into him.

"And then, when you get to the top of that tier list, you get the Great Grimm. These Grimm are the most powerful variants of Grimm that you'll find out there. Husks, Wyverns, Leviathans, Sky-Fish, Wendigos, Drakes, Nine-Tailed Foxes, Cambions... They're extremely rare, but it takes multiple teams- Hell, it takes an entire guild's worth- Just to bring one of them down, and they're not always guaranteed a full victory... Or any victory at all."

Anima placed her hands together, and began to twiddle her thumbs.

"However, above them, you get, well, you get the God Grimm... Grimm so powerful- So intelligent, and so unfathomably ancient- That they would go on to develop a conscience."

She laid her hands down flat on the table, and looked at everyone else gathered around her.

"They would develop human-like thought and reason."

There was a gasp from Russel and the boy in grey and black, whilst the boy with the narrowed eyes and Pyrrha looked on in surprise. Ren, however, just nodded, as did Nora. It looked like they already knew this information.

Jaune, for obvious reasons, didn't, but stopped himself from outwardly showing his panic at the thought. He had never thought a regular Grimm before. How the hell was he meant to take one that could think like a person?!

"I must admit, I did not know this", Pyrrha exclaimed quietly, "I was never taught this by my tutors."

"I doubt that they would", Ren added in as he placed his own hands on the table to support himself, "Nora and myself have never encountered a God Grimm, much less a Great Grimm at all, but we have heard stories about them across the Grimmlands and the Frontier. They're mostly just bedtime stories in order to scare children, but... The idea of a Grimm having the same capacity of thought as a human and Faunus... It is a terrifying thought. If it was taught publicly to everyone, then the very fear of such a Grimm would incite fear amongst the populace."

"And when things are getting grim, in comes the Grimm", Nora then said, with a surprisingly serious look on her face, "Believe me, we've seen it before."

Jaune blinked, and seriously wanted to ask more, but Anima stopped him as she then said, "Exactly", and then continued, "During the Great War, there was a surge of Grimm, right in the middle of the conflict. All of the kingdoms had to put aside their differences in order to drive them back", a pause, "But there's more to the story. This wasn't just any ordinary Grimm surge. This was a charge of Grimm on a scale never before seen across Remnant", another pause, "And they had a leader."

There was a long pause, before Nora, suddenly- Where did she get the popcorn?!- Suddenly pulled popcorn from out of nowhere, munched on it, and then quietly went, "They had a leader? As in a Big Boss Grimm?"

Anima nodded, "His name was Flugel, a Grimm that looked like a man, but with diseased wings, and a black and white disposition. His army of Fallen Angels and Grimm marched across Remnant, swallowing armies whole and drowning them in fields of fire and rivers of blood. His Succubus and Incubus Grimm would roam around Remnant, impregnating men and women, human and Faunus alike with their foul progeny, giving birth to the Grimm known as the Cambions."

There was a gag as Nora spat out her popcorn, and Jaune felt like he was going to throw up as he then went, "You mean, those Grimm... Are born from people? The Grimm... Raped people?!"

"The Succubus Grimm and the Incubus Grimm were created with only one goal in mind: To spread as much horror and pain as possible", Anima responded grimly, "Entire settlements were overrun and turned into breeding stock for these... Monsters", she spat the last word out with added venom. Jaune didn't blame her for it, "Just so that they could supplement their losses against humanity."

Once again, there was a long pause, before Pyrrha finally came out with, "I'm sorry, um, Miss Senterra-"

"Please, just call me Anima", the lion Faunus waved her off with, "Anima is fine."

"Sorry, Anima, sorry", Pyrrha apologised, before she went, "But still, those monsters- These 'Succubus' and Incubus' Grimm, Flugel and the origins of the Cambions... They don't teach us anything like that, and... And I'm sorry, but it just sounds rather far-fetched, doesn't it?"

"I agree", Ren went suddenly, surprising not only Jaune, but seemingly everybody else at the table, "We don't know much about the Grimm, and reports about what happened exactly during the Great War are muddy, yes, but that... That is just too wild of a tale. Too unbelievable."

_**IS IT?** _

Jaune realised a moment afterwards that he had said that out loud, as everyone looked at him with questioning glances, "Well, I mean, Grimm are attracted to negativity, right?" a nod from a few of them, "And like you said, Ren, we don't know a lot about the Grimm themselves, as much as we know about what happened during the Great War, again, like you said. Maybe someone covered it up to keep the population calm, and... Wait."

Jaune then turned to Anima, and raised an important question.

"Is all of this was covered up, how do you know?"

She waved it off, "My family has a better memory than most, after all", she paused, and then chuckled, "It's weird, isn't it? How dedicated we are as a species- Human and Faunus- To forget the past. Like a collective voluntary amnesia. Have any of you ever noticed how little of our own past we recall. The kingdoms have lived and survived for over a thousand years ago, and yet nothing exists of our past beyond that. Perhaps it is the fault of the Grimm, or our own. But the point still stands."

This definitely got everyone to shut up and think. Jaune himself didn't have much experience with history, what with his family's sheltering behaviour, but from the looks of it, it was definitely a concern of the others. He didn't know what was going through their minds, but he knew for a fact that they didn't seem to like it.

_**WHAT'S GOING THROUGH THEIR MINDS IS TRUTH ABOUT THE LACK OF TRUTH. SO MUCH OF OUR PAST- SO MUCH OF OUR STRUGGLES- WASHED AWAY. ALL OF THE BLOOD THAT WE HAVE SPILT, JUST TO BECOME LESS THAN A MYTH. ABANDONED. FORGOTTEN.** _

_**DON'T.** _

_**ALL BECAUSE OF HIM.** _

_**STOP IT.** _

_**AND HER.** _

_**STOP IT NOW.** _

_**I WOULD VERY MUCH LIKE TO RIP HIS HEAD OFF FOR WHAT HE HAS DONE TO US. TO OUR WORLD.** _

_**ENOUGH!** _

Jaune slapped the side of his head, which ended up drawing everyone's attention. The voices in his head went silent as he sheepishly went, "Sorry, it's just- It's just how I focus... And stuff."

Before anyone could say anything about it, Anima put a hand on his shoulder, "It's fine", and then continued from where she left of, "But anyways, wherever you believe me or not, it doesn't matter. What does matter is what happened next."

She placed her hands back on the table, and got back to twiddling her thumbs together.

"Flugel was eventually defeated, and his armies were crushed, but not by any single kingdom, but by a group of extremely powerful individuals. These individuals would kill the God Grimm and his armies, and as the kingdoms went back to killing each other- As the King of Vale broke down the walls of Mantle and brought the leaders of Mistral and Mantle to heel- At the same time, these powerful individuals were finishing off the last of Flugel's armies, and cleaning up the, pardon the pun, remnants of them. Afterwards, the armies were disbanded, the Huntsman system was established, and these individuals were called to become the first Huntsmen and Huntresses. After that, they would form their own guilds, but shortly afterwards come back together to defeat a trio of Great Grimm bothering the borders of Vacuo. As it turned out, they were really good at killing Great Grimm. And so, they melded their guilds together, and came out as one of the toughest bands of Huntsmen and Huntresses on Remnant."

"Providence", Pyrrha finished off with, "They became Providence."

"Right on the money, champion", Anima smiled. Pyrrha's lips waved, but she didn't say anything else.

"So, what?" Jaune began, "These Providence guys are just really tough Huntsmen and Huntresses?"

"They used to be", Anima began, "But not anymore. By the time of the Faunus Rights Revolution, they had begun to take on civilians and non-aura users as staff, swelling their numbers from the dozens to more than a hundred. But when the Rights Revolution hit, they began to annex and take over entire private military companies, swelling their numbers to the hundreds, if not the thousands. From what I've heard, they've also been poaching soldiers from Atlas as well."

"Now that, I know about", Russel poked his head up with, "Wasn't there a debate or something on TV a few days ago, between someone from Atlas and someone from Providence?"

The boy in grey and black looked at him, "Huh, did you watch it because it was actually interesting, or because it had your hero crushes in them?"

"Plead the fifth, Sky, plead the fifth..."

"I remember that debate, actually", Pyrrha went, "It was about Providence recruiting from Atlas' own ranks."

"Yeah, the Atlesians were not happy about it. Still aren't happy at all", said the boy with narrowed eyes, "They really don't like their soldiers turning mercenary. I swear, I thought that the veins in that guy's forehead was going burst from how stressed he looked."

"'Mercenary'? I thought that Providence were Huntsmen and Huntresses, or Hunters, or something?" Jaune asked.

"They used to be", Anima went, "But now they've evolved into a full on private military contractor."

"They're mercenaries, Jaune", Ren explained, "And more than that, they're one of the most powerful mercenary armies out there in the world."

"Really? Because of the power of their Hunters, right?"

"Yeah", Anima nodded, "Well, that, and that they have the power to rival that of the Atlesian military itself."

"What?!" Jaune went, "They can go toe to toe with Atlas? I thought that they had the only standing army on the planet!" from the looks of it, almost everyone else was shocked by this information as well.

"That's what their propaganda would like you to believe, yes", Anima explained with a pointed finger, "Providence specialises in killing the biggest and baddest Great Grimm and God Grimm out there, and they have the confirmed kills to show for it, numbering in the dozens. They've got international pedigree from Huntsman and civilian alike. As such, shareholders and guilds have been buying up their stocks, and sending them more money, allowing them to hire even more manpower and entire guilds. They also have enough money to fund their own research and development, creating their own technology, their own gear- Hell, from what I've heard, they've recently been outpacing Atlas in some fields."

She paused again, to let this information sink in further.

"They're not just a guild of extraordinary Huntsmen and Huntresses. They've got their own army, their own fleet of airships, their own support, drones, a fleet of boats- Last time I checked, they supposedly had about 300,000 personnel to their name, and that's just the people we know about. They're not just a mercenary company- They're a superpower. A superpower for hire. It's-", she relaxed. If her seat had a backrest, she would've let herself sink into it, "It's honestly staggering. Compare it to Atlas, with over a million people to it's name, it's not much, but still... It's honestly amazing."

There was silence once more. Jaune wasn't sure about the others, but he didn't say anything as he was still trying to swallow all of this information. God Grimm? Sentient Grimm? Grimm in general? Private armies that could challenge Atlas itself? People so powerful that they could kill the most powerful Grimm of legend?

How the hell was he supposed to do in order to catch up with all of them? If he wanted to save as many people as he could, how was he supposed to get as strong as them when he had handicapped himself so badly already?

_**HARD WORK.** _

Jaune winced as the pain in his fingers returned, rubbing them gently into the palm of his other hand as he mused to himself. Would they get infected? He didn't know, but he figured that getting plasters for them would be a good enough excuse to not have to take part in any more awkward conversations.

No fault to them, of course. It was more his fault than theirs.

He released his hand from his own grasp, and moved to get up, but then-

A pair of petite hands took his into their own, and rubbed their thumb over the cuts in his fingers with a gentle white glow.

Jaune yelped in surprise and drew his hand back, looking over his own fingers as-

Huh? Some of the cuts were gone.

How did that happen?

"Beep boop…"

He blinked, and looked to his side. Standing nearby, rubbing their hands together shyly, was a petite looking girl in what looked like a school uniform, with a blue skirt, black shoes with stockings, a black and blue unzipped jumper over a buttoned white shirt, with a- _How was that possible?_ \- A glowing red cross symbol in the centre of her shirt, segmented into 4 pieces. Her hair was messy (Almost like it had never been combed), Trailing down her back and over her shoulders, and was coloured a light electric blue, pale skin with flushed pink cheeks, and eyes that...

Her eyes. That was the most striking part about her. The irises were coloured an almost glowing blue, and her pupils... Instead of a single dot, they were the shape of a sharpened cross, almost like a star.

Jaune blinked again. How was that possible?

"B-Beep boop…", the girl went shyly as she placed her hands together with a quivering face, taking a step back and her fingers twiddled with each other hesitantly. Her eyes were almost closed and watery. She looked like she was about to cry.

Nearby, Nora cooed at her.

"Um", Pyrrha went near to him, leading Jaune to realise that everyone else had (Obviously) Noticed that this girl was here, "Can we... Help you?"

The girl didn't say anything for a while, before she looked down to Jaune's cut hand with a shaking gaze, and just went, "Beep boop…"

"Er…"

"Ah, don't mind her."

Another jump, this time from all of them at the table. They all looked to the side once more, to see another girl- This time with chocolate coloured eyes and hair, the latter with a lock of hair that was dyed a caramel gradient. She wore a beret and sunglasses, a mocha coloured shirt with a black scarf, black and gold trousers with high heeled boots, and had a purse with a bullet bandolier as the handle- Walk up to the petite girl with stars in her eyes, and gently, yet firmly, wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"Stella's a nurse, you see?" the girl with the beret and sunglasses smiled, "Well, not really a nurse, more like a nurse in training. Lives in Beacon, has a handy semblance. Really shy, but always wants to help", she patted the girl- 'Stella'- On her shoulder, and then looked towards Jaune, "Only time she ever tries to touch someone is when they're hurt, so if you don't let her do her magic, then she's not gonna stop worrying about it."

Stella looked back at Jaune, the stars in her eyes glistening a little as she looked down at his hand. Jaune, after a few moments hesitation, held his hand out to her, and-

A firm hand grasped his shoulder, and he looked up to see the girl with the beret and sunglasses giving him a threatening look, "No funny business. Kid's had a rough life", the hand on his shoulder tighten, "We don't need it getting any rougher, do we?"

Jaune just fearfully nodded. He wasn't even going to do anything to her, but good to know that she had someone looking out for her.

Stella didn't even notice the girl's threatening words as she took Jaune's hand into her own, and allowed a soft white glow to envelop them. He was hesitant for a few moments, but then, at seeing the girl's worry, he cautiously allowed himself to relax in her grip as the white glow encapsulated the whole of his hand, and...

Huh, it wasn't that bad of a feeling. It was quite pleasant, actually, though it was certainly an alien feeling.

What wasn't pleasant was how he could literally feel his cuts closing up.

He involuntarily squirmed in her grip, and Stella let go with a relaxed, "Beep boop…", blinking at her for a moment, he then looked down at his hand, and...

The cuts were gone. He traced a finger of where they once were. Not a trace of them. Just reddened skin from tiny droplets of blood.

"Wow...", Jaune went as he looked over his fingers in barely hidden wonderment, before looking up to Stella and going, "T-Thanks. Thanks a lot."

All Stella responded with was a quiet, "Beep boop…", and a shuffle of her feet.

Jaune looked back to his hand, running a finger over them, and went, "Huh, these semblances... Nifty little things, aren't they?"

Ren and Pyrrha looked at him again, but didn't say anything.

The others didn't take notice as Russel shot out with, "Yeah, mine lets me shoot out balls of green fire. S'freaking rad."

'Sky' went came out with, "Mine let's me jump really high- Which is ironic considering that my name is Sky Lark- And Dove here0", he gestured to the boy with the narrowed eyes, "-Can teleport by turning into a flock of doves."

'Dove' then looked to the girl in the beret and asked, "What about you? What's your semblance, er…"

"Coco. Coco Adel", 'Coco' answered for him, "And I'll answer your question if you answer mine: What are you kids doing up so early?"

Everyone blinked at that, but Ren quickly recovered as he put his hand up and went, "We couldn't sleep", followed by nods of agreement from everyone else at the table.

Well, everyone except Anima, who frowned, letting her sharpened teeth glisten like razor blades as she then went, "Oh, I don't know about you, but I would be asleep right now if these 3 idiots-", she pointed to the 3 boys next to her, "-Hadn't been keeping me up all night."

"""Hey..."""

"Ha! Late-night bloomers! I've had a fair share of them in my first year here", Coco's face turned serious, "That won't last. If there's one thing you need to take advantage of when on missions, it's to get the maximum amount of R&R needed. No good will come from not getting enough rest and going into a fight tired, and no, that is not an excuse to oversleep, girly."

"Aw...", Nora went.

"Still, though, it's good that you're up now", Coco went as she then began to march away, Stella trailing nervously behind her as she then went, "Get your stuff together, grab some food, and head down to the Bullheads. Consider this the start of your initiation."

"Wait, really?" Russel went, "But it's, what, 4 in the morning? 4:30 in the morning?"

"That's the life of a Huntsman, kid. You tend to not have much of a sleep schedule", as she kept walking, she quickly went, "Hype, by the way."

"What?" Dove asked.

"You wanted to know my semblance? I call it Hype. Amplifies dust. Turns it from normally explosive to explosively explosive."

"Ah, so an explosive type, huh?" Russel smirked as he then tried a pickup line, "Maybe later, you and I can-"

"You're not my type."

"Aw what, really? Wait, what is your type?"

"Girls."

"Oh..."

"More specifically, girls that don't have ugly neon green mohawks."

"...Oh..."

As Coco walked out of the door, Stella following afterwards, Russel just let his head slam against the table again and began to comically weep at his misfortune, whilst Nora just patted him on the shoulder, "There there, mohawk guy, there there..."

Dove had no such sympathy, though, as he just deadpan stared at Russel and went, "You know, you did just set yourself up for that, right?"

"Shut up, Dove."

_**I LIKE THESE GUYS.** _

* * *

{RATATATATATATATATATA}

Jaune and the others had to cover their ears at the sudden noise when they got back to the ballroom, as Coco somehow- God knows how!- Pulled a minigun from out of her freaking purse of all places, and shot about a dozen or so rounds into the freaking ceiling!

This school was getting weirder and weirder by the damned moment.

From the looks of it, Nora was enjoying it at least.

Not so much for the rest of the now definitely awake students, all of them in various states of distress and undress. Some of them sat up in their sleeping bags and looked around startled. Others immediately jumped up onto their feet and observed their surroundings like a prey animal surrounded like predators, or even the opposite way around.

"Rise and shine, buttercups!" Coco called out as she stepped towards 3 other... Students? Was she a student? Probably. Anyways, she stepped next to 3 other students- A girl with chocolate brown hair and rabbit Faunus ears, a boy with rust coloured hair and milky white eyes, and an imposing boy with a even more imposing sword strapped to his back- And then yelled out, "Get your crap together, get some grub, and get down to the Bullheads at the landing docks! They leave at 5AM on the dot, so if you're not there by then, you're left behind, and your initiation is done! You've got half an hour, so get a move on!"

And with that, everyone began to grab their stuff, fold up their sleeping bags, and get a move on. There was a definite panic behind their movements as they quickly got changed out of their sleeping gear and into their combat uniforms.

Jaune didn't have to worry about changing- Since he hadn't changed out of his combat uniform since last night- But still (He liked to think more than most) He could feel the horrible rush of nerves that were ordering him to get down to the Bullhead as quick as possible- He didn't have to worry about eating, since he had the foresight to buy protein bars on his way to Beacon- And went to-

His bag wasn't there. Neither was his sleeping bag.

His stuff wasn't there.

His stuff wasn't there?

His stuff wasn't there.

Why the hell was his stuff not-

_**TURN AROUND.** _

He did as commanded, and looked to see Ryuzu- The Schnee's maid from yesterday- Looking up at him with that same maid uniform on, and that same deadpan stare in her blood red eyes that peered through her bubble-gum coloured hair as she held his bag in her hands, a sleeping bag clumsily connected to it as the zip was sealed up.

Why was she holding his bag?

"Here", she said as she pushed the bag against Jaune's chest harshly, forcing him to take a step back as he took it into his own hands. Jaune asked her why she was holding his bag, and she responded with, "Ginger jock and girl with long hair were eyeing it."

"O...Okay. Thanks", he replied with, before asking, "But why-"

"Ryuzu looked in your bag."

"Wha-"

"Ryuzu thinks that barf boy's bunny onesie is stupid, and you should feel stupid for owning it."

"Oh..."

"Ryuzu, what are you- Oh never mind!" the Schnee girl went over to the side as she called out for her servant, "Just get over here and help me pack up, will you?"

"Of course, ma'am", Ryuzu bowed, before sparing one last glance at Jaune, "Goodbye barf boy", and then left.

Jaune was getting the distinct impression that she didn't like him.

Or maybe she did, since she was holding his bag for him.

…

He did a quick check, and sighed in relief that everything was still there.

…

Another quick check later, and everything was still still there.

…

Another quick-

_**STOP IT.** _

Dammit, Jaune didn't have time for this. Unwrapping one of the protein bars that he had in his bag and scoffing it down in but a few seconds, he slung his bag over his shoulder, and sped walk- Almost ran- Out of the ballroom and towards the locker, er, room.

He was unaware of the pairs of eyes that followed him.

* * *

Backpack? Check.

Sword? Check.

Shield? Check.

Med kit? Check.

Armour? Not a complete set, but still, that's sort of a check.

Common sense? Well, he was going into a Huntsman school with no formal training or legitimate transcripts, so that was a big anti-check (What was the opposite of a check? He'd look it up later).

Scroll? Would that break? He didn't know, but he'd better take it with him just in case. Check.

Sleeping bag?

Er…

He turned his head from his locker to what he presumed to be a teacher passing by, and asked, "Hey, um, we're- We're not, um, we're not going to be- Going to be needing our sleeping bags, are we?"

The teacher(?), Sporting messy green hair, spectacles, and a white shirt with a long yellow tie, nursed a coffee flash in his hands, and went, "WellyoungsirImustsaythatyouhavepointsforaskingbutIamafraidtosaythatasaprofessorIamunabletorevealanycluesastotheprocessofinitiationbutthatsaidIcanconfirmthatyouwillnotbeneedingasleepingbagofanykindinthisadventure."

…

_**WHAT?** _

Jaune was not the only person who was utterly perplexed at what this... 'Teacher'?... Had said, as everyone currently in the locker room just looked at him with the most confused looks that he had ever seen on a person. Or people.

"...So, is that a yes, or a... Or a no?"

The teacher shook his head, took a long sip from his coffee flask, and then walked off.

"...I'll take that as a no."

With a resigned sigh, he shoved his sleeping bag into his locker, and then went to checking on his other stuff.

Protein bars? Check.

Compass? Check.

Cloak?

…

Jaune took out his white and gold cloak, and looked it over, rubbing a hand over the golden rose emblem that he had sown into it when he was young.

…

Maybe it was best if he didn't take this with him. After all, it was more like a security blanket than any kind of cloak that could be useful in combat, if such a thing even existed. Plus, it could easily snag on something, or be caught and tear, or just be caught, and besides, it was pure white. In any other environment that wasn't a complete tundra, he'd stick out like a sore thumb.

Plus... Plus... Ruby might need it more than him.

Maybe.

Maybe...

Plus, with everything that was going on with this 'Summer Rose' woman, it might serve as a clue to what happened to her, if he ever figured out where the heck he had heard that name before.

With that decision made, he placed his cloak inside his locker, closed it shut and let it lock automatically, and followed the crowd towards the landing bay.

Once he finally arrived (After having double, triple, and then quadruple checked his bag for his things, he found the new group of people that he had met today, smiling and calling him over.

It didn't look like he had much of a choice.

Although, internally, he smiled a little bit.

_**THE TIME THAT YOU SPEND HERE WON'T BE SO BAD.** _

* * *

Inside the locker rooms, the last person out pressed on the holopad to Jaune's locker, and typed in the passcode.

His locker opened up, and they took out the cloak that he had in there.

Gliding their hands over it, they pressed it to their face, and smelt the aroma that came from it. The musky metallic smell of sweat and blood.

"Jaune…"

Their legs pressed together in arousal.

Something caught their eyes, and they flipped the cloak around.

The perfect golden rose emblem made their eyes widen.

"No... How... Impossible..."

...

It didn't matter.

They just had to wait a little bit longer.

Soon...

Very soon indeed.

* * *

**And here we go, the next chapter of Cult of Silver.**

**I got to be honest with you guys, this chapter was originally going to cut straight into initiation, but I felt that the character interactions that I had planned to go through with during initiation felt a little... Undeserved. Hence this little bottle episode, which I used to introduce these characters a bit more and offer more of a genuine beginning to a few friendships, and earn their character interactions a bit more.**

**Plus, some more world building and the introduction of new Grimm types.**

**Fun fact, a lot of those Grimm types are actually fan Grimm, while others are my own creations. Have fun figuring out which ones.**

**Anyways, with all of that said and done, follow, favourite, and review. I would love to hear your thoughts and theories, so please, go full analysist in your reviews. I would love to hear what you think.**

**And as always, stay safe, and I shall see you all next time!**

**Titanmaster117 ou-**

_**REMEMBER ME** _

**-T... What the hell?**


	4. Beacon part 3: The Road to Initiation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A question is made, players are put in place, and the initiation finally begins.
> 
> And elsewhere, their opponents begin to make their move...

**Main theme:** _[Death Hymn by Lucas King](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmTN8wu2AM8)   
_ **Arc theme:** _[Rise from the Destiny 2 soundtrack](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=intmEEVphig)   
_ **Theme:** [ _This is My Time by Lecrae_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWxfviXX3M4)

* * *

_Sometimes, I dream of you._

_I know you, but you don't know me. I dream of you, but you do not dream of me._

_Your dreams are occupied by names and places and people that you have never seen yet have always seen before, of twisting and contradicting truths and lies and mysteries and reminders that the truth is as changeable as you wish it to be._

_You dream of heaven and hell and the in-between._

_Me? I dream of what-have-beens, what-could've-beens, what-ares, what-shall-bes, and what-can-bes. I dream of set yet changing pasts, mouldable presents, and possible futures, all of them reminders that nothing is set in stone, and nothing is as clear as day._

_Except for one thing. I know that there is one truth that is solid and told and true in this ugly, messy world._

_No matter what, no matter your flaws or faults, you will always stand up for those you love._

_It is so clear of a truth to me, that it might as well as a law of the universe in of itself._

_I almost fell in love with you for it._

_But will you be there for them, Jaune?_

_Will you be there for my daughters too?_

* * *

Ruby wasn't sure what she had been expecting when she woke up, but she knew for a fact that it wasn't a girl with a purse that turned into a minigun shooting around a dozen rounds into the ceiling just to wake everyone in the room up to tell them that they had to be down at the Bullheads in half an hour.

Okay.

Beacon Academy may be even more awesome than she originally thought.

What was not awesome, however, was her sister still snoozing away right next to her, completely oblivious to what was going on around her! Seriously, Yang was such a heavy sleeper! Someone could probably set off a nuclear bomb next to her and she would still sleep... Through...

She wasn't in her sleeping bag?

Where was she?"

"Mornin', Ruby."

The Little Red Riding Hood girl jumped in place as she shot up, and looked to the side to see Yang walking over to her, putting her infinity scarf around her neck and shoving her arms through the sleeves of her tan jacket.

When did she get up so early?

"About half an hour ago", Yang replied when Ruby asked, "I've heard enough rumours about Beacon's initiation to know what to expect, even if Dad and the guys at the company are tight-lipped about it. And you know how much I like to keep my hair looking perfect."

Ruby just nodded at this, supposing that she had a point, "I still think that you should cut it, though."

"The day I cut my hair is the day I die."

"You won't be able to cut your hair when you're dead."

"Exactly."

She just sighed at Yang's unnatural love for her hair, before a concerning thought came over her, and she looked up at her elder sister and asked, "Is that really why you got up so early?"

Yang blinked, "Why'd you ask?"

"Yang..."

She paused, and then, dropping her voice an octave, she said, "I just wanted to check that Jaune guy's bag, is all..."

"Yang! You can't go around looking at other people's stuff!"

"Why not? I look in your diary all of the time!"

"Wha- Is that why the lock on my diary always- Stop it, don't change the subject!" she pointed an accusatory finger at her elder sister, "Yang, you can't just look through people's stuff! That's a bad thing to do!"

"...You know my reasons why", was Yang's quiet response.

Ruby didn't reply directly to that. She just sighed, and sadly went, "Right... I'll get my stuff ready."

"Mm", Yang grunted, "We'll head down to the cafeteria before we go to the lockers, grab a snack or something. We've only got half an hour, so be quick."

"Are you seriously asking me if I can be quick?" Ruby asked as she poked a thumb into her chest and huffed, "I am quick! I am the very definition of quick! I'm quicker than you when it comes to showering, that's for certain!"

Yang snorted, "Yeah, says the girl who makes us wait hours outside of weapon stores all the time, just so she could nerd out on every piece of hardware in sight."

You're the same with bikes! Ruby wanted to retort, before remembering that they were on a serious time limit, and so quickly began the process of getting changed out of her pyjamas and into her combat uniform (Under her sleeping bag, at least, "Thanks", she said to Yang after she had gone through the effort of shielding her from any prying eyes).

As they began to follow the crowd that was heading towards the cafeteria, and as they began to walk with the constantly moving lines towards the venders that had been set up in the wide space that was the mess hall, Ruby's thoughts went back to Yang.

Would she actually threaten Jaune if he didn't tell her anything about Mum? Ruby wanted to say that she wouldn't but... But she couldn't be so sure.

Yang had always had an obsessive side to her. Whenever she jumped onto something, she wouldn't stop until she got whatever she wanted out of it. It was both a defining characteristic and a fatal flaw.

On the one hand, it had been that obsessive streak that had gotten her a grade A+ in vehicle mechanics, full star accommodations in all of her combat classes, and a license to drive her motorbike, Bumblebee, which she had also built completely from scratch. Yang had one heck of a competitive and obsessive streak that would launch her straight into the Huntress life without much effort, and it had been with that obsessive dedication to it all that she could succeed.

On the other hand, it was also a source of weakness on her part. Yang had always been obsessed with finding out why her... 'Egg donner' (As she put it), Raven Branwen, had left her when she was still a baby. The thought of it had consumed so much of her life beforehand. Heck, she had gotten into trouble with the law enough times (Especially recently, when she blew up a flipping bar!) To become a sort of regular down at the police station- And gain a criminal record!- All because of this obsession with finding Raven Branwen.

Ruby didn't know why Yang was so insistent on discovering the truth behind why Raven left. After all, Yang hated Raven's guts with a passion. Why would she still bother to try and find out the truth? It didn't make a lot of sense to her, and she doubted that it ever would.

After all, didn't Yang always say that her mum- Summer Rose- Was the better mum- Was her true mother? If that was the case, then why did she so easily accept their mother's death and not do anything about it?

Ruby knew the answer to that one. It began and ended with a barn, a trolley, snarling wolves and a scythe covered in black blood.

It was the first and only time that Yang had ever given up on an obsession.

It was times like these that made Ruby wonder if Yang both loved and loathed Summer Rose. Loved her for raising her- Even if for a short time- Like a normal girl. And loathing her for leaving them just like Raven did, for whatever reason that the both of them had.

She didn't know, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to know.

But now, here came a boy, wearing a cloak just like Summer Rose, with the same emblem as Summer and Ruby... Well, it was safe to say that that obsession was rekindled.

So would Yang threaten Jaune with violence if she didn't get the answers that she wanted?

Probably.

Most likely.

…

Yeah.

Yeah she would.

She was weird like that.

Ruby realised that she had been going on autopilot, as she broke herself out of her thoughts, to feel Crescent Rose in her hands. She had been following Yang by instinct. Now they were standing near the Bullheads with the crowds in the darkness of the morning, illuminated by the holographic streetlights and lamps that were set up all around them. Hundreds of initiates were gathered in groups and singles and clumps, doing last minute checks on their weapons and gear, pacing in place to cool their nerves, laughing with friends and newly made acquaintances, muttering to themselves, and so on.

"There he is..."

Ruby caught Yang's hand before she could make a move, "Don't", was all she said. She didn't need to look to know what her sister was looking at.

"Ruby-"

"I know. I know you want to find out what happened to Mum", believe her, she knew more than most, "But we can't just... Haggle him for the truth. Not right now."

"'Haggle'?"

"You got me a dictionary calendar, remember?"

"Oh yeah..."

"A-Anyways", Ruby added on with, "We can't just explode at him. We'll figure it out later. Right now-"

"Initiation comes first", Yang interrupted with a scowl, "Fine... Fine! But I'm getting the truth out of him today... One way or another."

Ruby frowned, but didn't say anything. Truth be told, that other boy- Jaune, she remembered- Had looked sincere in his claims, as well as his own confusion about her mother (She remembered him saying that the name, Summer Rose, did sound familiar, but he didn't know why. Why on Remnant would he lie about that?)

But still...

She found it hard to believe his claims.

Even if she didn't show it like Yang, it was still a hard pill to swallow. It was just too many coincidences. Too many connecting dots to be ignored.

Jaune knew something about Summer Rose. He had to.

Why else would he wear a white cloak with her emblem on it?

Her want from the truth betraying her, she followed Yang into circling around the crowd that had formed around Jaune, and- Why would there be a crowd around Jaune? What did...

Oh, they weren't there for Jaune. They were for who he was talking to.

"What's with the- What's with the crowd?" they heard him stammer out as Pyrrha collapsed herself into the circle of people around her, including Jaune, Anima (The girl from yesterday), The boys that Yang was friends with- Sky Lark, Dove Bronzewing, and the one with the awful mohawk, Russel Thrush- As well as a boy in green and a ginger haired girl with a hammer. Jaune then went, "I-I'm not- I'm not good with- With crowds."

"I'm sorry", most surprisingly of all, Pyrrha actually answered back, looking apologetic as she then went, "I was, um, it was the reason that I bumped into you by accident."

Suddenly, a lot of the people in the crowd surrounding them began to call out things that Ruby very much didn't want to repeat, with most of them aimed at Jaune. He winced under it all, and looked even more nervous by the second. It was obvious that he was even more socially awkward that her (Somehow!) So this must not have been doing his confidence any good.

At least, until the ginger haired girl hefted her hammer, and went, "Hey! Get going! My boys and girls need their breathing room, and you're crowding them!"

"What are you, her bodyguard now?!" someone in the crowd called out.

"In this particular instance, yeah! Now get get!"

"Oh, Pyrrha, can we-"

"I said get!"

"-TaaAAAAAUUUUGGHHH!"

Ruby blinked as she saw the Schnee girl from last night fly through the air like a frisbee.

Well, that's never happened before.

This school truly was awesome.

"You can't tell us what to do!"

"She cannot, but I can."

Everyone blinked, and then looked to the side, to see the blonde haired stern looking Huntress from before- Professor Goodwitch- Giving everyone an even sterner glare.

"The Bullheads are waiting. I suggest you all get on."

It definitely wasn't a suggestion.

They all immediately began to start filing away into the dozens of Bullheads that were parked in the landing bays, packing into them like sardines in the can. Incredibly squashed sardines, yeah, but sardines nevertheless.

Where was she going with this? She had a point.

Ruby did her best to follow Jaune along through the crowd, but found herself being huddled into another Bullhead, keeping her Crescent Rose close to her as she was stuffed into one of the Bullheads, in between her sister and a girl dressed in black and white with a bow on her head, onyx black hair, and piercing, cat like amber eyes.

The last that she was able to hear of Jaune's conversation was the ginger haired girl asking, "Hey Jaune, what happened to your cloak? It looked good on you."

"Ah, yeah, about that, I-I wanted to ask you guys something..."

What he said next threw Ruby for a loop.

"Have you guys- Have you heard of someone called Summer Rose?"

* * *

"'Summer Rose'?" Nora repeated curiously.

"Y-Yeah", Jaune muttered, before going, "I mean, has anyone ever heard of someone with that name before?"

"Nope."

"Not that I remember", Ren added in.

"Sorry", Anima went with a slightly strained voice. The 3 boys with her just shook their heads.

However, Pyrrha, having pushed herself into the middle of their group to protect themselves against the rest of the initiates with them, probably to avoid them looking at her, piped up with, "Actually, I believe I have heard that name before."

"Really?" Jaune asked a little too quickly, "Er, sorry."

Pyrrha waved it off, "It's fine", but then pressed her finger against her chin in thought, and said, "I don't know much about her, and my mother and father have only mentioned her in passing, along with a... Yes, a single mention by my manager, but I believe that Summer Rose belonged to a guild known as Blossom's... What was it? Blossom's Blades? Blossom's- Thorns. The Blossom's Thorns guild, that's what they were called", she looked to Jaune, and continued, "I believe she is- Or rather was- Quite the Huntress. Rather famous around the island of Patch and the southern parts of Vale and Sanus, but that's all I know, I'm afraid", she tilted her head to the side, "Why did you ask?"

Jaune paused, and then thought to himself: Should he actually tell them? Would they think him creepy for having the exact same insignia as a dead woman? Would they not trust him? Would it be better to keep this to his chest rather than-

_**TELL THEM.** _

…Why?

_**BECAUSE IT WILL CAUSE PROBLEMS IN THE FUTURE IF YOU DON'T.** _

…As much as he didn't like the voices in his head, he had to agree. If he told them now, they would find him creepy, sure, but it would also get things out of the way with quicker. If he didn't, then it would just cause problems with trust, and would also be pointless on top of that. Best get it out of the way with now, while the foundations of whatever relationships that they were building now were still soft.

Jaune rubbed the back of his head, and then grabbed the bottoms of his jumper, "W-Well, yester- Yesterday, I met someone who... Who was the daughter of Summer Rose."

"Did you?" the others were looking curiously at him now.

"Er, um, yeah", Jaune put his hands together awkwardly as the ship underneath them jittered in the air, an uncomfortable feeling rising up in his stomach as he blanched, taking a moment to bring out and swallow some of his motion sickness medication, "Sorry", before going, "Er, yeah, I... I met her, and her sister, and... I've got the same emblem as her."

"Huh?"

"My cloak", he paused, "The cloak that I had on yesterday. It was- It was the same colour- The same colours as her mother's, and... And it had the same emblem."

"Hm", Pyrrha nodded along, "So you've met this Summer Rose woman in the past?"

"No, that's the thing, I've never met- I've never met this woman before."

"Pardon?"

"I-I made that cloak by myself. I remember stitching it together myself. I've never- I've never met or heard about this woman before- I mean, I don't remember ever hearing about this woman, before, but- But I made that cloak myself, as well as the emblem, and... And they're apparently identical to Summer Rose's."

"...And you're sure that you've never encountered or even heard of this woman before?"

"Not- Not that I remember."

"...", Pyrrha looked at him inquisitively, with Jaune unsure as to what she was thinking.

Nora, however, made no such cryptic efforts, as she flat out just said, "Yeah, that's kind of creepy."

At least she said it for everyone else.

"I have to ask", began Ren, "But why bring this up?"

Jaune hesitantly shrugged, "I don't know... W-Why not, I guess? I mean... I don't know, it might cause problems with Ruby- Er, Summer's daughter in the future, it might not... I don't know. I couldn't- Couldn't really find a reason not too."

"How about we wait until after initiation to figure all of this out?" Anima piped up with, "Then afterwards, when we're all in, we can sort out all this stuff out?"

"...Er, yeah, I-I guess", Jaune went, "I guess that's- Oof!" the airship rocked again, and Jaune was barely able to stop himself from falling into somebody, before clutching onto his stomach with a queasy look, "Ugh..."

"Are you okay?" Pyrrha asked as she grabbed hold of Jaune by his shoulders to keep him in place, "You're not going to-"

"Yeah, I-I'm okay", Jaune muttered, not used to having a girl hold onto him, and feeling a little embarrassed about it. Shrugging her off with a light dusting of red now on his cheeks (Mixed with a little green as well), He popped down another motion sickness pill, and then looked to the side and muttered once more, "Airships... They- It's my biggest weakness..."

"What about getting stabbed?"

"Nora, that's everybody's biggest weakness."

"Oh yeah. Thanks, Renny!"

"No problem."

And then, there was silence.

Everyone in the Bullhead fell into silence as the ship continued to sail through the air.

Jaune didn't know why everyone else decided to stay quiet- Probably nerves, or steeling themselves, or whatever professionally trained Huntsmen and Huntresses did- But for him, it was a comfortable silence.

But, with the Bullhead still rocking from side to side, he needed something to take his mind off of it.

And so, he decided to turn to the one thing that had always helped him drift away from discomfort:

Music.

He was glad that he at least had the foresight to bring his noise-cancelling headphones with him just for a situation like this- As well as if they were in an area with a lot of loud noises- As he pulled them out of his bag, slapped them over his neck, and was about to plug the cord into his scroll when-

"Oh, are you listening to music?"

-Nora piped up with that question, and everyone else turned to him with questioning glances, some of them more frustrated than others. Probably just trying to get into their zones, and didn't like being interrupted.

"Oh, er, I was- Was about to", Jaune got out, "It just- It helps me focus on other things, music."

"Other things like not vomiting your guts out."

"W-Well... Yeah."

"Oh! Can we have a listen? Please please please!" Nora put her hands together as she looked up at him with- Ah, dammit, she was using the puppy dog eye trick. He could never not fall for that, "I really like music! I wanna listen!"

"Er, um, o-okay", Jaune went nervously, "Okay then", with a bit of a blush, he then scrolled through his playlist of favourite songs, and then selected one of them, "I just- I like this one. I just like it. I think it's nice. Please don't hate me for it."

There was a bit of build-up, at first- A bit of setting up for the start of the lyrics, and then-

_(Ooh-ooh)_

-It hit.

_Here we go_   
_Found my position, let's hit the road (Ooh-ooh)_   
_Came alone, now my people here wit' me, I'm in my zone (Ooh-ooh)_

"Oh, I like this one! This one's nice!" Nora went as she began to shimmy in place to the beat of the song and lyrics. It was certainly a hip type of song, with an upbeat tone and hopeful lyrical melody. Jaune felt his face flush at the thought of somebody liking the same music as him, while the others either stayed quiet with their eyes closed, or began to bop their heads gently to the song itself.

_Been around the block a time or two_   
_I tell you where to go, I tell you how to move_   
_I got longitude and latitudes_   
_Keep it movin', that's my attitude_

Jaune felt the phantom trace of a smile cross over his lips as he heard Nora began to whistle to the tune, whilst the 3 boys that were with them, Russel, Dove, and Sky, began to bop to the beat, and Anima kept her arms folded together as she closed her eyes and absorbed the musical tone.

_Lookin' back, I know they prolly doubt me_   
_Now the city on my back, I wear it proudly_   
_I'm a hero in the makin'_   
_If I'm dreamin', you can't make it_

Ren and Pyrrha, meanwhile, shot him another inquisitive stare, as if trying to figure something out about him. Jaune hoped that they hadn't somehow caught onto him faking his way into Beacon, but shot that idea down, and he figured with how he was acting, that it would be painfully obvious.

_I think I'm destined to win it_   
_They playin' games, I ain't in it (Yeah, yeah)_   
_I took the message of sinnin'_   
_Feel like I was born for this minute_

The rest of the Bullhead passengers, meanwhile, had their own mixed reactions, with some seeming to enjoy the sudden burst of music into the cramped hold of the ship, others having a look of apathy on them, and the rest looking rather annoyed at the interruption to whatever mental games that they were playing in their heads. In particular, that ginger jock fellow from last night- The one that had pushed him around for no reason- Was giving him a hard glare as he hefted a very intimidating mace over his shoulder, snarling at him for whatever reason he had, though Jaune didn't know why he had earned himself such scorn from a person that he had never even met before.

_This is my timе_   
_I'm seizin' the moment 'causе I gotta go 'fore the time's gone (Gone, gone)_   
_Ain't scared of the dark 'cause I'm bringin' the light where the night's long_   
_I shine on_

_See it comin', I don't need a sign (Yeah, yeah)_   
_This the moment, I'ma make it mine (Yeah, yeah)_   
_This is my time (This is my time, yeah)_

_My time, my time now (This is my time, this is my time, yeah)_   
_My time, my time (This is my time)_

It was the chorus that was his favourite part of the song. He could never properly remember the words to any of the songs that he liked, but he could always just hum to the tune of it as he tilted his head from side to side. Ironically, it was this sudden motion that allowed him to focus himself against, well, more uncomfortable movements. He didn't know why specifically, but it just helped.

_Shoulda known from the beginnin'_   
_I was put on Remnant to win it (Ooh-ooh)_   
_Wanna tango where we livin'?_   
_Anyway you try to spin it (Yeah, yeah)_

Even Anima was humming along to it now. No, actually, from the way that her lips were moving... She was muttering along to the song. Perfectly, yet quietly, singing every single word. Huh, she must like this song a lot as well.

_Heroes lookin' at me in the mirror_   
_Couldn't tell but now I see it clear_   
_Got the confidence to make the moments matter even after all the interference_

He felt a bit of embarrassment at that part of the lyrics, and felt his face flush red as he looked to the ground. He really didn't want to have to face anyone right now, not when he was the exact opposite of confidence.

**_YOU'RE NOT THE OPPOSITE OF CONFIDENCE, SWEETIE._ **

_Why?_

**_YOU'RE IN ONE OF THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS HUNTSMAN ACADEMIES ON REMNANT WITH FAKED TRANSCRIPTS. THAT TAKES MORE CONFIDENCE THAN YOU'D THINK._ **

_Sounds more like I'm up crap's creek with a paddle._

**_WELL NOW, THAT'S JUST DEFEATEST THINKING._ **

_I think I'm destined to win it_   
_They playin' games, I ain't in it (Yeah, yeah)_   
_I took the message of sinnin'_   
_Feel like I was born for this minute_

Now, Nora was tapping her feet to the beat as she hummed along. Even Pyrrha and Ren seemed to be enjoying it as well as the Bullhead swayed to the side, more urgently this time.

_This is my time_   
_I'm seizin' the moment 'cause I gotta go 'fore the time's gone (Gone, gone)_   
_Ain't scared of the dark 'cause I'm bringin' the light where the night's long_   
_I shine on_

More people were getting into a beat now, with a few trying to use the music to get closer to Pyrrha, though Anima and the 3 boys with her all got them to shove off.

_See it comin', I don't need a sign (Yeah, yeah)_   
_This the moment, I'ma make it mine (Yeah, yeah)_   
_This is my time (This is my time, yeah)_

Jaune could hear Nora singing along to it now, as well as Anima, a bit more loudly this time. Even Pyrrha and Ren were humming along to it and tapping their feet to the rhythm.

_My time, my time now (This is my time, this is my time, yeah)_

The final piece of the puzzle, the build-up, and then-

_My time, my time (This is my time)_

-Conclusion.

{SHUDDER}

It was an incredibly dramatic one on top of that, for as soon as the song reached its end, the Bullhead shuddered and still, sending the initiates within swaying to the side in gasps and surprised stutters, before regaining their footing as the Bullhead hovered in the-

Did it hover in the air? He could feel it go still, but he could still hear and feel the soft hum of the engines at his feet. If they were, then why were they hovering above the ground?

Before anyone could ask as to what was going on, a holoscreen flipped down from the ceiling of the Bullhead, and the face of Headmaster Ozpin, holding a cup of steaming whatever (Probably coffee) In his hand, enveloped the flickering screen, _"Good morning, everyone. I hope that you are well rested, and apologies for waking you all up so early, but that is the life of a Huntsman. Consider this the first part of your initiation, as well the first lesson of being a Huntsman: Always be alert, and always be ready for anything. As such, if you have made it thus far, then congratulations, you have succeeded in the first part of your initiation into Beacon Academy."_

At first, the initiates cramped inside the Bullheads were writ with confusion and anxiety, but this was then replaced by a feeling of collective pride and reassurance in themselves. Jaune in particular, as he was stuffing his headphones and scroll back into his bag and pocket respectively, felt a swelling of confidence in his stomach as Ozpin's words, but that was squashed down by the continuous feeling of dread that constantly invaded his being.

"That being said, it is time for the next part, and the true part, of your initiation to begin. For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

The screen flickered away from Ozpin's face to that of the stern blonde haired Professor from before, as she seemed to glare into the camera, sending shivers of fear down everyone's spines-

(At least, Jaune hoped that the others were feeling fear like him, and not something else that he could think of.)

-As she then said, _"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumours about the assignment of 'Teams'. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... Today."_

Now this certainly caught everyone's attention. Jaune himself hadn't given much thought to how specifically teams were formed, so it was best to pay attention now, less he miss something crucial.

The screen flickered back to Ozpin, as he continued from what his co-worker was saying, _"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well. That being said, the first person you make eye contact with will be your partner for the next four years-"_

Everyone looked at Pyrrha.

_"-After landing in the Emerald Forest directly below, of course."_

Everyone huddled close to Pyrrha.

Jaune, however, had busied himself with Ozpin's words, and froze in place as he realised something dreadful.

_"After landing in the Emerald Forest directly below..."_

Were they going to toss them out of the Bullhead?!

_**THEY BETTER NOT.** _

_"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. It is a long walk, so speed is of the essence, and undoubtedly, you will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you will die."_

WHAT!?

**_OH NO NO NO, SWEETIE! OZPIN WOULDN'T INTENTIONALLY PUT A CHILD'S LIFE AT RISK... AT LEAST, I HOPE HE DOESN'T._ **

_That does not inspire confidence, voices in my head!_

_"You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing multiple relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Remember, there is only a finite number of relics, and as such, only a finite number of you can join, so, once again, speed is of the essence. Are there any questions?"_

Wait, can he hear them?

One initiate realised this as well, as they then asked, "Wait, how are we getting down?"

Ozpin, thankfully, answered, _"You will be using your own landing strategies."_

_**…OH NO HE ISN'T.** _

The same initiate then asked, "Wait, that doesn't answer the question! How are we supposed to-"

The screen flickered off and the hold's lights flickered from white to red.

From the cabin, a voice called out, "5 seconds till drop!"

_**…OH GOD HE IS.** _

{BEEP}

{BEEP}

{BEEP}

{BEEP}

Jaune could only just sigh.

"I knew I should've invested in a parachute."

{BEEP}

The floor opened up underneath them, and they all dropped.

The wind howled against his face as-

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"

-Jaune screamed through the air, joining the flying ball of initiates as they began to spread out wider over the rapidly approaching Emerald Forest as-

HOLY FUCKING SHIT OZPIN'S FUCKING INSANE THIS IS HOW I DIE WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK!?

-He finally realised that yes, he was freefalling through the air, on a collision course with the ground below.

WHAT THE FUCK WAS THIS SCHOOL?!

Oh for god's sake, he signed up to become a Huntsman, not a human pancake! Was Ozpin mad?! Or was this just a regular Huntsman thing?! How had nobody else died from-

Wait, Ozpin said that they would die in the Emerald Forest if they weren't careful.

How has nobody sued Beacon, yet!? How has Ozpin been able to keep his job!?

"-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"

Quick update, still screaming.

Let's check in on the others...

"""""-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"""""

Yep, they're all screaming too.

Also, quick question: What the fuckidy fuck was a landing strategy, and why had nobody mentioned this before!? What the fuck was wrong with these people!?

**_THAT MOTHERFUCKING COCKBITE PIECE OF SHIT ASSFUCK LOOKING MOTHERFUCKER OZPIN I'M GOING TO SHIT DOWN HIS THROAT AND SCALP HIM ALIVE WHEN I GET MY FUCKING HANDS ON THAT PIECE OF SHIT AND CASTRATE HIM AND MAKE HIM EAT IT BECAUSE THIS SHIT IS RIDICULOUS AND I'M GOING TO CLAW HIS SHIT-FILLED EYES OUT AND MAKE HIM CHEW ON THEM AND-_ **

_NOT! FUCKING! NOW!_

The ground was rapidly approaching. The ground was rapidly approaching! THE GROUND WAS RAPIDLY APPROACHING!

**_JAUNE, LISTEN TO ME._ **

_What?!_

**_LISTEN TO ME! I NEED TO DO SOMETHING! IT'LL BE WEIRD, BUT IT WILL SAVE YOUR GODDAMN LIFE!_ **

_What the hell are you-_

_**TRUST ME!** _

"JAUNE!"

Through the thrashing wind, he looked to the side to see Pyrrha Nikos trying to line herself up next to him as they sailed towards the ground, herself holding her arm out, trying to reach him as the ground grew clearer and clearer and-

_**THROUGH IT IS-** _

**"CAW-CAW!"**

_**-WHAT THE WHAT?** _

Jaune tilted his head to the side to see-

Holy crap, that's a big bird.

-Yep, a giant black and white bird with 4 glowing red eyes and claws that looked sharp enough to pierce through a semitruck in a single go, rapidly approaching them from below, and snapping its beaks at them as-

{DING}

Lightbulb.

_**JAUNE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?** _

"PYRRHA!" he called out over the deafening wind, as he pulled out Crocea Mors in one hand, and reached out his hand to Pyrrha with the other, "TAKE MY HAND!"

_**JAUNE WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?** _

"JUST TRUST ME!"

Somehow, Pyrrha paused in the face of rapidly approaching death.

And then, with a face of grit, she took his hand into her own.

_**JAUNE I SWEAR TO EVERY GOD OUT THERE IF YOU'RE GOING TO DO WHAT I THINK YOU'RE GOING TO DO-** _

Jaune blocked them out as he readied himself, watching the giant bird come closer and closer, as he pivoted his blade in his hand.

The giant bird passed right under him.

Their eyes met for just a second.

He thrusted his blade down into it's neck, and it caught.

Just as planned.

Pyrrha and he were flung to the side, right onto the giant bird's body as the wind rocked past them, almost winding them themselves as Pyrrha let go of Jaune-

"PYRRHA!"

"I'M OKAY!"

-In order to grab hold of the giant bird's feathers and fur, whilst Jaune just took his sword into both hands as he wedged it from left to right, digging it in further as black smoke leaked out in its torrents.

The giant birds shrieked and quailed, letting out shrill cries of pain as he pivoted through the air, twisting and turning, going up and down and left and right and over and under as it tried to shake them off, pivoting in the sky against the great blue and black of the early morning. A smoky trail left it wherever it went, as black blood began to weep from its mouth.

"AH, REN! YOU STILL WITH ME?!"

"I'M STILL HERE!"

Jaune looked behind himself for just a second, to see that Ren and Nora had had the exact same idea as him, and had grabbed hold of the bird as well as it passed them. They were safe, at least-

"HOLD ON!" Jaune cried back to them as he continued to try and steer the giant bird in the sky (Was this one of those Grimm creatures? It must be...), Wedging his sword down further into it's bone and skull, as he then tried to-

{CRACK}

Oh dear.

-Of course, that wouldn't be for long.

Something had broken. A brief wiggle of Crocea Mors later, and the truth came out to him.

The bird had broken, not his sword.

The red lights behind the big bird's eyes went dark, and black smoke began to bellow off of it's being.

And thus, it began its decent down into the forest below.

"GODDAMMIT!" Jaune cried as he tried to pull the Grimm(?) Up from its downward trajectory, to no avail, "HOLD ON, GUYS! WE'RE GOING DOWN!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

And then, the-

**{CRASH!}**

The giant bird hit the ground, hard. Trees were pulled up and sent flying through the air like toys tossed around like a toddler. Massive plumes of soil and dust and dirt were kicked up into the air like mushroom clouds, and the giant bird itself began to roll and skid across the ground like a steamroller, crushing everything in its path as it left a trail of destruction and destitution in its wake.

Jaune was flung off of the Nevermore with a piercing scream, barely able to hold onto Crocea Mors in his hands as it was ripped out of the giant bird in a gory spray of black blood and white bone fragments. Seeing the ground rapidly approaching him once more, he prepared himself to do something stupid yet again-

_**JAUNE I SWEAR YOU ARE IN BIG TROUBLE IF YOU DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT AGAIN YOUNG MAN ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING-** _

-And dug his sword into the ground, letting it act like a brace against the speed that he was currently going at, just like in the cartoons.

{CRACK}

In all fairness, he was lucky that the sudden stopping momentum only dislocated one of his arms from its socket instead of ripping them both clean off.

The pain was something that he could deal with later.

Slamming his feet into the ground, he kicked up a wave of dirt underneath his soles as he tried to stop himself from moving at such a rapid pace, feeling the bones in his legs fracturing under the immense pressure- But not breaking. Not yet- As he forced himself to stop his rapid momentum, until-

{SWIPE}

-With a dramatic pull of his sword from the ground, he finally stood still in place, and on the sweet sweet ground below him- Even if it was a little muddy- As the giant bird rolled across the ground, and then finally came to a stop with a resounding-

{SLAM}

-Kicking up a giant cloud of dirt, and coming to a rest against a freshly prepared bed of now dead trees.

Oh shit the others!

he looked around himself, and shouted, "Hey, are you guys okay!?"

"We're all here, Jaune!" from the now rapidly decomposing bird's corpse, Jaune spotted Nora, Ren, and Pyrrha walking away from it, looking relatively okay as Pyrrha reported, "With only nicks, scratches, and bruises to show for it, but otherwise, we're okay."

Jaune winced at their wounds. He would have to try harder to keep them out of harms way, next time.

He ignored the pain in his dislocated arm. That could come later.

"Jaune!" it was Ren this time who shouted this out, "Never- Ever!- Do that again!"

Nora, on the other hand-

"That... Was... AWESOME!"

-Found it to be quite enjoyable.

"Let's do it again!"

She then promptly puked up the contents of her stomach, earning her the nickname of Vomit Girl.

_**JAUNE!** _

The boy in question just tilted his head up to the sky, and quietly said, "Yeah?"

_**NEVER** _

_**EVER** _

_**DO** _

_**ANYTHING** _

_**LIKE** _

_**THAT** _

_**EVER** _

_**AGAIN!** _

"N-No promises..."

_**EVER!** _

* * *

"Well... That was something."

She looked over the chaos that had just unfolded over the Emerald Forest, and giggled.

"I was expecting you to cause some chaos, but that... You're more dangerous than I thought."

She smiled.

"But you're not the only one that I'm after."

She cracked her neck, and turned to the side.

"Ready our forces."

"Yes, ma'am."

She looked back to the Emerald Forest, and her eyes became focused.

"Wait for me, Ruby Rose. I'm coming to get you."

She smiled once more.

"So says Baobhan Sith, and the Cult of Silver."

* * *

**Okay, that was weird... It felt like last time, there was something in my... Never mind. Let's just move on.**

**Anyways, here is the next chapter of Cult of Silver. I hope you've all enjoyed.**

**Just as a head's up, I'm going to be changing this to an M rating soon. Probably the chapter after next. You'll understand when you see it.**

**Yeah, I'm going to be going into some darker themes later. Some things that would probably require me to turn this from a T to an M.**

**Yeah, it's going to be darker and edgier.**

**Before I go any further, though, I would just like to raise a good point.**

**I like darker and edgier. I really do like that trope as its own genre, A.K.A. dark fics. However, it's a very niche genre, and its very hard to get right. That's why whenever you see 'Dark fic' tags, most of the time, they tend to be terrible, or so morbid that it makes it hard to care about anything since there's no ray of hope for anything, therefore what's the point of rooting for anything good to happen?**

**Here's the thing about darker and edgier, and how to do it right: You can't make it always miserable and horrible. You have to insert lighter moments, and give hope to the characters and situations, in order to balance it out. If it's always miserable, then there's no point in rooting for anything to get better, and there's no point in hoping that things do. Because it's all miserable, and it's always going to be miserable.**

**2 fics that have this problem (In my opinion) Is Null, by Coeur Al'Aran, and Let Us Be Your Poison by GodSaveTheKings.**

**Now, don't get me wrong, these fics aren't bad. It's just that I can't really invest myself into them because they're just so dark and depressingly without any hope for a meaningful resolution.**

**Null, I have a love and hate relationship with. It's got good writing and a solid plot, but on the other hand, it's execution leaves more to be desired. Speaking from me personally, Null leaves no room for hope, and is continuously cramming it down the reader's throat that, "Everything sucks, the bad guys can get away with whatever the hell they want, and all of the 'Heroes' are hypocritical and egotistical bastards, and there's nothing that you can do about it", seriously, even Ozpin gets in on the act, when I know for a fact that if the canon characters saw what they were doing, they would be absolutely disgusted.**

**The biggest problem in this fic, in my opinion, is best exemplified in the latest chapter, where-**

**SPOILER ALERT**

**-Jaune kills Penny for a second time. Penny, in this fic, is one of the few genuinely nice people in this world, who just finished her redemption as a character and a person, and is also one of the few people who isn't just out for themselves, and for that, Jaune just kills her again.**

**This act of killing off Penny like this, is basically this world that Coeur has crafted squashing out all hope for a happy ending. We know that everything is going to go to shit, and we know that Jaune isn't going to get a happy ending, and that's why I can't invest myself in it, or personally enjoy it, because there's no hope for any kind of happy ending, and I know better than to get my hopes up, because every time that I do, they always get crushed, and I'm not looking for that in a story.**

**Let Us Be Your Poison, however, suffers from a bad case of this type of dark fic, by turning all of the characters into unsympathetic jerks. While others may grow closer to them over time, I can't find it in myself to care about them, because everyone hates each other. Blake is an asshole. Yang hates her own sister. Weiss tells Ruby to go kill herself and is so racist against Faunus that she has a goddamn panic attack when trying to help them at a rally. Hell, even Ruby isn't immune to this, and Ozpin...**

**Oh, don't get me started on Ozpin.**

**The point is, that dark fics are really hard to get right, because if you make everything dark and depressing, then what's the point of wanting things to get better, because the second a ray of hope for a happy ending emerges, it gets crushed and destroyed under the weight of the world.**

**2 other fics, however, also in my opinion, do get the formula for dark fics right is Coeur's Beast of Beacon, and ImSoAwesome's Redemption Arc.**

**The Beast Of Beacon, first of all, technically isn't a dark fic, but considering that it's Adam going to Beacon after Blake, then it might as well be, as it deals with a lot of themes around racism and prejudice.**

**However, instead of letting themselves be swallowed whole by this world of despair, the characters continuously show that against this, things can get better. Not everyone is a jerk or a racist, as best shown with Adam's teammates, Yang, Weiss, and Ruby, not every figure of authority, like Oobleck and Ozpin, are out for themselves and completely unreasonable, and ultimately, things can get better if you try. It takes the possible hope that Null discards, and balances it out well against the morbidity of the world that they live in.**

**Redemption Arc, however, starts off slow and with a more morbid than hopeful beginning few chapters, but ultimately, in the last 2 chapters, it has shown that ray of hope, and allowed the characters to interact and act more positively, rather than just act like jerks and OOC assholes all of the time. While I do have some misgivings about Jaune being a {SPOILER} of a {SPOILER}, that doesn't mean that the rest of his character isn't done well, and as such, it balances its themes and characters out better than both Null and LUBYP, because it allows us to feel reprieve, just like the characters, and allows us to retain hope for a better ending.**

**Again, this is all in my opinion. I'm not telling you to not read these stories. I'm simply sharing my own thoughts.**

**But still, do you see where I'm going with this?**

**Dark fics, and darker and edgier in general, is hard to do, because it can just get excessive at points, and if there's no hope for things to get better, then there's no point in reading because it just go from dark to depressing. And I don't read in order to feel depressed.**

**But, anyways, that the end of my rant. I hope you've all enjoyed.**

**As always, leave a review, follow, favourite, stay safe, stay healthy, and I shall see you all next time!**

**Titanmaster117 out!**


	5. Beacon part 4: Initiation Processes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Initiation begins, and the new teams of Beacon gather together.
> 
> And over the horizon, a new threat finally reveals itself...

**Main theme:** _[Death Hymn by Lucas King](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmTN8wu2AM8)  
_ **Arc theme:** _[Rise from the Destiny 2 soundtrack](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=intmEEVphig)_  
 **Theme:** _[Enlightened from the Destiny 2: Beyond Light soundtrack](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Knal3CZ4qPs)_

* * *

Ruby hadn't been sure what to expect when initiation started.

The first thing that she didn't expect to happen was be dropped out of a Bullhead in the middle of the air.

The second thing that she didn't expect to happen was seeing Jaune, Pyrrha, and 2 of the other people that they were with ride a Nevermore down into the forest below.

Okay, that was really cool!

"RUBY!"

Oh, right, she was still falling, wasn't she?

How on Remnant did she forget that?

Pulling her Crescent Rose from her back, she unfolded it into its scythe form and looked down at the rapidly approaching ground below, sparing a single look to the side as she watched Yang being tailed by that black and white dressed girl with the bow from on the airship, before looking back down at the forest below, making out more and more details as wind blew into her eyes and between her hair, the noise from it all threatening to turn her deaf as she positioned her Crescent Rose in her hands.

She needed a plan. A landing strategy, that was what she needed! And luckily, she was already formulating on. Using her semblance- Allowing her to practically teleport from point to point via turning into rose petals- She would bounce to between the tree trunks, jump from point to point via her semblance, slowing herself down, then catch herself on one of the trees with her scythe, and finally land safely on the floor.

Now, did Yang have a landing strategy? Judging from the face of confidence on her face (She knew that the elements of worry on her were more for Ruby's safety than her own) As well as the smirk and aviators that she was wearing, she seemed to have it handled, though that didn't stop Ruby from being concerned-

Down below, a series of glowing white snowflake glyphs spawned in the air, trailing downwards. Ruby could see the Schnee girl running along them, down towards the ground, as if they were a road made of hardlight.

She had a better landing strategy.

"Yang! Follow me!" she called out to her big sister over the wind, and at Yang's approving nod and smile- Looks like she caught onto her plan as well- She propelled herself downwards towards the hardlight glyphs in the air, and burst into rose petals immediately at contact. Had she been a regular meat person then, she would've exploded into a giant pile of red goop at the sudden stopping force, aura or not, but thanks to her semblance, she quickly reformed once more, and began to run across the slowly fading glyphs. Behind her, she could Yang land hard against the fading glyphs- Followed quickly afterwards by a lither pair of feet hitting the solid snowflake symbols- And soon, 3 pairs of feet began to sprint along the fading glyphs as they- _Ah fudgecakes!_ \- As they began to rapidly dissipate behind them.

Up ahead, the Schnee girl looked back towards her glyphs, most likely to see what was suddenly using up more of her aura (If that was even the right word to use), When she suddenly saw what was trailing behind her, and cried out-

"WHAT THE-"

-Right before disappearing into the treeline below.

"Alright Yang, keep it up! We're almost there!" Ruby called out as she ran along the downward going glyph road, "We just need to-"

Below them, the glyphs gave out, and faded away.

"-Aw crud."

Ruby and Yang, as well as whoever was behind them, once more began to freefall to the ground. However, this time there was less distance between them and the trees, so that meant there was much less time for them to build up momentum and splatter on the ground.

However, they still didn't have enough time to come up with a proper plan in time before they hit the ground.

Improvisation was the key.

Fortunately for Ruby, that was her specialty.

Trusting Yang to be able to deal with herself (Albeit reluctantly, of course. Just as Yang worried for her, she worried for Yang too), She burst once more into rose petals, and reformed right in the middle of a circle of trees. Before she could smack herself against one of the branches, though, she used her Crescent Rose to hook around one of the tree trunks, and flung herself around it like a barber pole, before slamming her own feet against the freshly carved tree trunk, and then launching herself off, through the trees and foliage, right into a clearing, where-

**"RRAAAUUUGGHH-AUGH!"**

-Her feet connected with a Beowolf Omega, sending it flying backwards as she summersaulted onto her feet.

In every observed pack of Beowolf Grimm, there were 3 clear ranks. The Beowolf Beta would act as the common grunt and most common variant of the Beowolf subtype of Grimm. The Alpha, meanwhile, would act as the head of the pack, and would be the most intelligent of them all, able to direct and lead its pack through what were assumed to be pheromones that it released from its body.

Beowolf Omegas, meanwhile, served as the replenishers of the pack. Standing as the largest of the Beowolf types, both in height and body mass, every pack would have at least 1 or 2 of these Grimm, which could asexually reproduce more Beowolf Beta Grimm via what was presumed to be a sort of cloning mechanism, in which the Omega would clone a vast amount of its own body mass, push it into its back, and then create a new Beta Grimm, which would act as a bodyguard for the Omega until it was old enough to venture out on its own.

There was no sex involved. There was absolutely no sex involved. Ruby didn't know why, but she felt like she had to make that clear.

And sure enough, Ruby could see the Omega Beowolf howl as its back began to grow and bubble, inflating like a balloon, until there was a sickening pop and squelch, and the skin and bone on its back burst open in a shower of black blood and gore. From that blackened gore, a pair of newly born Beowolf Betas- With purely black fur, no bone chitinous armour, and with blood red eyes and teeth- Emerged, snarling and snapping and covered in black blood.

Ruby looked around at the Grimm that had gathered around her. A Beowolf pack. A small one at that, with 10 fully developed Beowolf Betas, 2 Beowolf Omegas- The second one had just produced 2 more Beowolf Betas as well, so 4 Beowolf Beta new-borns as well- And at the back of the group, a Beowolf Alpha, much larger than its beta subordinates, much still smaller than the Omegas.

Ruby spared a quick look behind herself, to see the Schnee girl from before, looking at her angrily as she held a rapier with a multicoloured revolver mechanism built into it. Darn it, Ruby must've wasted so much of the girl's aura just from running across her glyphs. She must be running on fumes now.

She steeled herself, and looked back towards the pack of Grimm now baring down on her. As much as she could take on all of these guys by herself, the fact that she was now with a weakened potential teammate changed her current objective from attack to defend. And right now, in this situation, she really would've liked some backup right now.

Luckily for her, she got just that.

From the bushes and trees behind her emerged 2 figures. One of them was a blazing Yang, both of her shotgun gauntlets, Ember Celica, primed and ready, whilst the other was the black and white girl with the bow, who seemed to have a look of distain on her when she glanced at the Schnee girl, but focused herself on the Grimm ahead of her.

Ruby smiled at the sudden backup that she had, and then looked to the Schnee girl as she then asked, "Are you-"

"Focus on the Grimm, Little Red", the Schnee girl said with a frown as she readied her own weapon, "Then we can talk."

"But your aura-"

"Is enough, now go."

"Sounds like a plan to me!" Yang cheered, before letting out a roar and jumping forward, slamming her fist against the closest Beowolf and cracking its head open, black blood spraying out as the Beowolf was sent crashing into another pair of its fellows, sending them all to the floor. Jumping over the pile, Yang then summersaulted over another Beowolf, grabbed it by the head, and then fired off her shotguns, the sudden momentum twisting the Grimm's head 180 degrees, and-

{SNAP}

-Snapping its neck, killing it instantly. Using the momentum that she had gathered, Yang then landed on the ground, picked up the now fading Grimm corpse, and used it as a bat against the Grimm that she had just knocked down, before letting go of the corpse, and grabbing 2 of the Beowolves by their heads, slamming them together-

{CRUNCH}

-And reducing them to a fine black paste of fading blood and bone, and then using their corpses as a springboard to slam her head right into the head of the Beowolf that she had wounded, knocking it down into the ground, and then kicking it up, applying several several more punches to the Grimm's chest, tearing it apart. Then, for the finisher, she pushed all of her aura into her closed fist, sent it flying forwards, and-

{SQUELCH}

-Launched it directly through the Beowolf's chest, killing it instantly in a spray of black blood and white bone.

4 Beowolf Betas down.

The girl with the bow, meanwhile, used a ribbon on her weapon to turn it into a sickle, attaching it to one of the new-born Beowolf Betas, and pulled herself forwards with it, twisting in the air, and using the ribbon to pull the weapon across the Beowolf's neck and-

{SLICE}

-Cut it clean off in a black shower of blood. Skipping over the now decaying body, she pulled her weapon into her hands, and shot off 2 rounds, right into the second new-born Beowolf's eyes, piercing through the soft flesh and bone, and dropping dead in a second.

4 Beowolf Betas, 2 new-born Betas down.

Their mother, the Beowolf Omega, did not take this lightly, though, as it raised its clawed arm and threw its fist down, kicking up dirt and rock as it slammed into where the girl just was, a fiery shadow of herself left behind that exploded on impact, tearing apart the Grimm's entire arm and leaving it whining over a bloody burnt stump.

But, as the girl reconfigured her weapon into a katana, and as she pulled off the sheath from her back, now revealed to be a cleaver, the Beowolf Alpha roared and charged forward, swinging its claws down at her. Luckily, the girl seemed to sense that this was coming, and quickly dodged the blow, causing the Alpha and the Omega Beowolves to collide clumsily with each other and fall to the ground, giving Blake the time to-

5 Beowolf Betas were bearing down on her. She had little time to react-

{FWOOSH}

-But found that she didn't need to as a concentrated gust of wind threw the Grimm to the side, and she realised that the Schnee girl had just saved her skin.

The Schnee in question quickly summoned a glyph underneath her, which propelled her forwards at great speed, which she used to blindside the Beowolf Omega as it got up from the floor, unleashing a devastating fencing blow across its chest, slicing it open as it howled in pain, but not before it launched a blow from its remaining arm down onto her, almost catching her if she hadn't used her glyphs to launch it up into the air, before she summoned one from underneath her, launching her higher into the air, and then bouncing off of one that she summoned above her, flying down, and unleashing a riposte that brought her blade piercing through the Grimm's chest, before she sliced her blade from the chest, through to the shoulder of the Grimm, and let the decaying corpse fall to the ground.

4 Beowolf Betas, 2 new-borns, and a Beowolf Omega down.

The girl with the bow, meanwhile, busied herself with killing the 5 Beowolves that had been thrown away from her, slicing up their limbs and bouncing in between all of them, before throwing her weapon, attached to her ribbon and in its sickle form, to the side and spinning it around, sending it through all of their necks and slitting them open, spraying smoking blood over the ground as they died.

9 Beowolf Betas, 2 new-borns, and a Beowolf Omega down.

The Schnee girl simply looked over to the girl with the bow, and went, "Thank you for the assist."

The girl with the bow seemed to bite down her tongue, as she just replied, "You're welcome."

Ruby, meanwhile, got around to the last of the Grimm, as she cleaved Crescent Rose right through the last of the Beowolf Betas, cutting it in half vertically, before bursting into a cloud of rose petals and rearranging herself right between the 2 new-born Beowolves, the dumb Grimm not even having any time to react as Ruby spun her weapon around and let it slice right through the 2 beasts in a shower of black gore.

Ahead of her, the Beowolf Omega roared at the loss of its pups, and it charged forwards, almost knocking Ruby over with its larger mass if she hadn't had moved out of the way quick enough. However, before it could do anymore, she hooked her Crescent Rose around its neck, and swung herself around it, the blade of her scythe slicing right through the skin and cutting it off in a showing of blood.

The Beowolf Alpha, enraged at the loss of its pack, charged blindly at Ruby, and swung its claws at her, the girl in question rolling to the side as she swung Crescent Rose down on the Grimm, only for it to dodge and roll to the side, deflecting another blow from the young reaper as it did battle with her.

It had better reaction time and more learned patterns of attack then the rest of its kind. Of course it did, seeing as it was an Alpha Beowolf, and therefore the oldest of the pack-

Ruby smirked, and aimed the sniper down at the Grimm.

-But it wouldn't save it.

She fired off 4 rounds so loud that they sent the birds fluttering away in their droves-

{BANG BANG BANG BANG}

-And the Beowolf staggered back, dazed at the sudden motion, allowing for the girl with the bow on her head to wrap her ribbon around its neck and pulling the head of the Grimm back, trying to pull it down onto the ground, but failing as the Grimm grabbed the ribbon's cord and pulled it upwards, the girl not letting go of her weapon as the Alpha Beowolf swung her to the ground.

However, the girl with the bow had the Grimm distracted long enough for Yang to charge forwards and deliver a series of rapid-fire punches into the Grimm, knocking it around the place and sending it staggering back, but not before she threw all of the kinetic energy that she had collected in her semblance, and launched it into the Grimm with a single punch, sending it flying across the clearing and onto its back.

Ruby nodded to Yang, and then shot forwards into a flurry of rose petals, her feet connecting with the stomach of the beast as she dug her scythe into it and fired off a round, the momentum of the blast as well as her own speed launching the blade right across the Grimm's body, and neatly severing it in 2 in a spray of blood.

Ruby dropped to her feet right next to the corpse, and patted her sweetie gently as the black blood on it began to fade away. Another Grimm gone, all in a days-

"RRRAAAAAAAUUUUGGGGHHHH!"

A roar from behind her. She flipped herself around to see that the Beowolf Alpha hadn't been cut in half- She had only sliced the skin and top bone- And was now more angry than ever before, as it raised up its clawed hand and-

{STAB}

-Did nothing more as a rapier blade went through one eye and out of the other, thanks to the way that they were angled on its head.

All Grimm down and out for the count in around a minute.

The now fading corpse fell to the ground, and the Schnee girl looked at her with a deadpan stare as she flicked her blade to the side, as if to get rid of the fading black blood on it. Ruby blinked and then went, "Um, thank-"

"If you had actually been taking this seriously and checked your kills, then you wouldn't have needed me to rescue you like that", the Schnee girl admonished her for, "And if you hadn't been piggybacking off of my semblance and draining my aura even more than you dolts had been doing earlier, then I could've dealt with the Grimm in less time than I did. We're lucky that my aura didn't run out because of me having to concentrate on not letting you fall to your deaths", she stepped to the side, and looked away, "So you're welcome, but don't make the same mistakes again, understand?"

"Er, y-yeah."

"Hey!" Yang went as she marched up to the Schnee girl, "What's your problem?"

"My problem is when people like her- Supposed Huntresses with years of training on their backs- Don't take such a profession seriously and almost get themselves killed because of it", she dryly pointed to Ruby, "Like that just now."

Yang looked like she was about to say something, but was stopped by Ruby as she then said, "Yang, it's fine. She's right", there was a pause, and then, "I really should've been paying more attention."

The Schnee girl looked at her with a raised eyebrow, before she then went, "Humph, well, if you can accept your own shortcomings, then you might not be that bad of an investment", Yang seemed to bristle at Ruby being called an 'Investment', but Weiss ignored it as she then went, "I was hoping to be partnered with Pyrrha Nikos", she looked to the side scornfully, "And I would've been if that ginger-haired monkey hadn't gotten in my way", and then looked back to Ruby, "But I suppose that you will have to do", she held up a hand to her, "Weiss Schnee."

"...Um-"

"This is the part where you shake my hand, child."

"Hey, I'll be 16 by October!"

"Good for you. I'll be 18 in 2 weeks", 'Weiss' gestured to her hand, "Are we going to shake or not?"

"Ah, sorry!" Ruby went, as she took Weiss' hand into her own and shook it vigorously, "I'm Ruby Rose! Er, nice to meet you?"

"Yes, nice to meet me too", Weiss added on, letting go of Ruby's hand as she then looked to the other 2 with them- Yang and the girl with the bow- And said, "And you 2 are?...

Yang waved her hand with a slightly vexed look to her, "Yang Xiao Long."

The girl with the bow, meanwhile, simply replied, "Blake Belladonna", and then looked to Weiss, "You're one of the Schnees, right? The heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, correct?"

"Well yes, actually", Weiss went with a smug look on her face, "It's good to know that not everyone is oblivious to my status."

"Well, yes. After all, how can one forget the SDC's controversial labour forces and questionable business partners."

Weiss' proud expression dropped, and was replaced with a bristling and stuttering scowl, as she tried to come up with a response, before looking to the side and shouting out, "Let's just move!" and began to march of to the side.

"Er, Weiss?" Ruby began.

"What?"

"Headmaster Ozpin said that we're supposed to head to the northern end of the forest."

"And?"

"That's the south."

Weiss bristled once more, "I knew that!" and then circled around and marched right past them, "Let's go!" and then towards the treeline.

Ruby blinked, looked to the side, and then asked, "New friend?"

"We're here to become Huntresses, not to make friends", Weiss shot back with, "Then again, I'm sure that you have experience in that regards."

"Oh, fuck you too, lady!" Yang defended Ruby with, "I doubt that you have any friends yourself!"

Weiss paused in place, stood as still as a statue, and then looked back with a dry look, and said, "I never said that I did", before walking forwards, between the trees and around the bushes.

Everyone blinked in surprise, before Yang looked to 'Blake' and held out her hand, "Partner?"

Blake just rolled her eyes, and trailed after Weiss, leaving Yang and Ruby by themselves.

The blond and the half-brunette, half-redhead looked at each other, and a single thought was shared:

_We're going to be partners with these 2? This is going to be hell._

* * *

"And it looks like Miss Rose and Miss Xiao Long have already formed a team of their own, with Miss Belladonna and Miss Schnee. I can already tell that those 4 girls are going to be giving me headaches for the next 4 years", Glynda Goodwitch sighed as she looked up from the scroll in her hands and to the man next to her, "I don't care how many times you try to justify it, Ozpin: Letting Miss Rose in so early is too great a risk to her.

Ozpin looked up from his own scroll, and smiled at Glynda, "You know why I invited her in early, Glynda: Our enemies are making too many sudden movements to go unignored. Amber's incapacitation and the sudden reappearance of her attempted assassin in Vale is proof of that. As much as I abhor dragging a girl so young into our war, we need Miss Rose in our corner, now more than ever."

Glynda bit the inside of her cheek. As much as she hated it herself, Ozpin did have a point. Ruby Rose's silver eyes were an incredibly rarity now. For all that they knew, she was the last Silver-Eyed Warrior left alive on the entire planet. That alone painted a giant target on her back for their enemies to aim at. It would generally be safer for her under their careful eye than out in the open like before, even if she didn't know why she was a target for their enemies.

Still though...

"Whilst there is logic to your decision, I still cannot agree with it", Glynda continued with, "Tai is still working at Signal Academy, isn't he? And Qrow still has connection to the academy as well, from when he used to teach there. We could've kept her safe there and let her continue her education at a steady pace", she let out a deep breath, "Ozpin, she is not emotionally mature enough for the life of a Huntress. She's 15 years old, yet she acts like a 7 year old at times. And I do not mean to disparage her skills as a sure-fire prodigy, but by doing this, we are denying her an entire 2 years worth of vital education, which she will have to catch up on as well as keeping up with her current studies", she frowned, and said, "I'm sorry, Ozpin, but she just isn't ready for this."

"...Yes, well, call me a selfish old man", Ozpin began with a soft look to him, "But I would sleep much better at night knowing that she is safe and sound, especially when our assassin now knows her face."

Glynda sighed once more, and just said, "Right", looking back to her scrolls, she then said, "Well, luckily there have been no casualties to think of. Everyone has adequate landing strategies at least. I still don't agree with just dropping them out of airships like you did."

"Would you rather I catapult them off of springboards?"

"Ha... Ha... Ha...", Glynda deadpanned, not looking up from her scroll as she then said, "Well, it looks like Cardin Winchester hasn't found a partner yet. It appears that...", she blinked, "It appears that potential partners are actively avoiding her."

"Well", Ozpin began as he took a sip from his coffee mug (It was actually hot chocolate, contrary to popular belief), "He did not make the best impression yesterday, did he?"

"No, he did not", Glynda replied, before blinking again, and going, "Actually, it looks like he does have a partner now", she angled her scroll towards him, to view the boy in question talking to a human girl with blue eyes, a onyx coloured ponytail, and a deep black trench coat, "One Nana Shaula is now his partner."

"Is she?"

"Indeed, though from the looks of it, she doesn't seem to enjoy it."

"Of course", Ozpin said, "But, they are partners now, and as such, they must learn to work with each other, or fall apart."

Glynda nodded, and then switched the channel on her scroll, to see another group of Huntsmen and a Huntress forming together, "Well, that Anima Senterra girl seems to be a natural born leader. She's already corralled 3 boys into being on her own team."

"3 of them?"

"Sky Lark, Dove Bronzewing, and Russel Thrush, though I do not know how the last boy can tolerate that atrocious haircut", she shuddered at the thought, and then added, "They do strike me as more 'Go with whatever they are told' kind of people."

"You don't believe that they are assertive enough as Huntsmen?"

"I think that they have served as doormats of a sort in the past- Though if they were truly once friends of Miss Xiao Long, then that must've been the reason behind why- And as such, do not seem to put up any kind of fuss against what they are told", Glynda gave him a sincere look, "I believe that if their leader was that Winchester fellow instead of Miss Senterra, then they might've gone along with whatever prejudices or violent acts that he wanted without much question."

"Well", Ozpin paused, "That is a problem."

"Indeed. It is good to be loyal and follow orders, but not when the orders are wrong. Such blind judgement will not get them far. If they do succeed, then I shall have to focus on their abilities of act independently and assert themselves more", she paused once more, "Though I know for a fact that they won't be the only team that I have problem with this year."

"You are referring to Mr Arc, correct?"

"Why won't you let me go down and get him out of there?" there was a bite to her words now, "You saw his landing. You can see his condition. He doesn't even have his aura unlocked yet. And yet, you wish to see him released into a forest filled to the brim with Grimm on the grounds of faked transcripts and a very clearly doctored psychological report?"

While they were aware that Jaune Arc had doctored his transcripts, it was the psychological report that confused them more. The psychological report was written years ago, and very clearly not by Jaune, considering that the handwriting was completely different, and was also filed years ago by a professional psychologist.

However, Jaune had the clear signs of a mental disorder. Undiagnosed schizophrenia, that was the current theory. However, the fact that every other psychological report that was filed by Jaune's doctors did not say anything about this, only saying that he was of perfect mind and body, the former of which was clearly a complete lie.

Someone had faked Jaune's mental condition, though why was unknown.

However, it was clear that Ozpin had his own theories...

"If he passes initiation, then he deserves to be in our academy", Ozpin replied with, "If he doesn't, then he does not deserve to be here, faked transcripts or not. It was the same with Qrow and Raven, remember?"

"Ozpin, they clearly had training and skill! Mr Arc does not! For gods sake, he's bleeding and his arm is dislocated! He is in no condition to fight, much less without any aura!"

"Glynda, we have seen the greatest Huntsmen of our time suffer from worse injuries and recover, even without aura. We must trust that-"

"Is this about Summer?"

"..."

Glynda scowled, "Ozpin, we can't... We don't have enough evidence to suspect him of working for Salem, nor any solid evidence to suspect him of knowing anything about Summer Rose."

"We don't know that."

"Ozpin, wherever he is or isn't, he isn't prepared for this at all. He is wounded and clearly in pain. If you wanted to interrogate him, then you could've just called him up to your office and..."

Ozpin looked over to her, "Miss Goodwitch?"

Glynda simply looked at her scroll and steeled herself.

Ozpin looked over to her scroll, and saw what she was forcing herself to look at.

There was Jaune Arc, pulling his arm back into its socket.

* * *

{CRACK}

"GUGH!"

Jaune bit down as he pulled his arm back into its socket, an ugly cracking sound and crunch going along with it, his bones clicking back into place as he bared through the pain.

The pain... Oh gods, the pain.

It was absolutely unbearable.

"J-Jaune…"

He ignored it, and rolled his shoulder multiple times, to see if there was anything else that was wrong. Nothing from the looks of it, though he could practically feel his shoulder bruising underneath his sleeve.

Speaking of which, his sleeve was being dyed a dark red. He felt the side of his head, and realised that he was bleeding around the ear.

Great, he really didn't need this right now.

"Jaune…"

He didn't have time to disinfect it, so he simply settled for pulling out a long bandage from his bag and wrapped it around his head. Satisfied with the amount of paper around his head, he pushed Corcea Mors back into its sheath, and-

**_JAUNE._ **

_What?_

**_PAY ATTENTION._ **

"Jaune!"

He blinked, and then looked behind him. There was Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora, their wounds from before... Healed? Was this that semblance stuff that they had been talking about before? Man, he had to get himself one of those.

"You guys alright?" he asked again, confused as to why they looked so worried. Wait, right, they were in a giant forest with what, over a thousand or so other initiates. They couldn't stick around for long, "We need to get moving. Which way is north?"

"I really think we should-"

"Which way is north?" he repeated. He couldn't allow them to see his weakness. If they did, they would see how badly underprepared he was for this. Just put on a brave face, and keep moving, "We've got a lot of ground to cover, and I'd rather we didn't stick around here anymore", he forced himself to stop stuttering through all of that. He just needed to get them all moving.

"Um, er, let me-", Nora began, "Let me try something", and then, scooting to the side, she let out a long, low whistle, and then changed to a bird song.

A few seconds later, a bird fluttered down to the ground, and Nora held out her hand to let it fall on her finger.

Jaune blinked, "Woah..."

Nora let out a chirp, and the bird chirped back. Another few seconds passed, and the bird flew up into the air, circling around them as Nora pointed one way, and went, "The ruins are that way. No one else has gotten there yet."

Jaune tilted his head to the side, "Er, t-thanks", he cursed himself for his stutter, and then looked at Ren and asked, "Er, was that her, um, her semblance, or something?"

"No", Ren replied with as he shook his head, "She's just always been good with animals", and then allowed a look of concern to invade him as he went, "More importantly though, are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine."

_**LIAR.** _

He was aware of that. He'd been lying a lot in his life. What was one more?

"Really, I'm fine", Pyrrha looked like she was about to say something, but Jaune stopped her, "Look, if we spend all our time here worrying, then we're not going to be able to get to the relics and get our place in Beacon. We need to move now, before anymore of…", he paused, and gestured his hand to where the giant bird had once been, now decomposed and nothing more than fading smoke in the air, "Before anymore of those things show up."

"Grimm?" Pyrrha asked.

"Yeah", he nodded, before pointing to the side- Where north was, now that he knew- And went, "Let's move out."

And so, he walked, whilst the others reluctantly followed behind, through the trees and into the thick forest around them.

All the while, a ghostly pair of silver eyes watched them all the way.

* * *

"It's this way... No, it's definitely this way..."

"Weiss, that's east."

"Oh... What about this way?"

"That is still east."

Weiss wheeled around to look at Blake, "Well, I can't tell, alright? Every single part of this forest looks the same! How can you tell?"

Blake pointed her hand upwards, "The position of the sun."

Weiss blinked, "...Whatever", and then went back to trying to figure out which direction they were meant to be going on.

"Weiss, that's east again."

"UGH!"

Somewhere behind them, Yang looked at Ruby and went, "Well, this is going swimmingly so far."

"Yang, this is going the exact opposite of swimmingly."

"I know, that's why I said 'This is going swimmingly' in a sarcastic, rhetorical sense."

"Oh."

"We need to work on your ability to pick up sarcasm more."

"Right", Ruby looked down, and then back up to the 2 girls that were now supposed to be their teammates, Weiss and Blake, as they went back to arguing with each other about where they were supposed to go, "This is the exact opposite of how I was hoping us finding new teammates would go."

Yang queered her head to the side, "How did you think it was going to go?"

"I don't know, a little less shouty really loudly?" Ruby answered without a hint of sarcasm, "At least, I had been hoping so. I had figured that things might not be fine as I'd, y'know, I'd like them to be, but... Yeah, I didn't expect things to go off the rails so quickly."

"I wouldn't call this 'Off the rails'", Yang added, "I mean, they haven't started trying to kill each other, but, hey, give them a few minutes, and I'll start breaking out the popcorn. Might as well get as much entertainment in this place as we can."

"Yang!"

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding", she shrugged, "Partially, at least", and then looked back to Weiss and Blake as she then went, "You know, it's not too late to ditch these 2. Slink off while they're distracted, and find someone else."

"You know we can't do that, Yang, even if we wanted to", Ruby pointed out, "Look, right now we're in a giant forest filled with Grimm and other initiates. We need to get our act together and move before we get left behind. We don't have time to just stand around and argue with each other."

Yang gestured a thumb to the monochrome pair, "Yeah? Try telling that to them."

"...A-Actually, I was hoping that you could-"

"Nope!" Yang said as she grabbed Ruby by the arm and began to pull her along, "You don't get the shrike out of teammate responsibilities. We're all partners now. Might as well get everyone to work together as partners, and that, my dear sister, includes you."

"Yang-"

"No, you don't get to pull the 'Little sister' card this late into the game", and with that discussion over, Yang dragged Ruby over to the still arguing pair, and called out, "Hey, my little sister has something that she wanted to ask you 2, if you wouldn't mind paying attention for a moment!"

Both Blake and Weiss blinked, and they looked to the 2 sisters in silence, before Blake, with a curious tone to her voice, asked, "You 2 are sisters?"

"Half sisters. Our dad remarried", Yang waved it off, before going, "But that's not the point", she then patted Ruby on the back, and then said, "Go on, Rubes."

"Er, um... Hi?" nervously waved Ruby, which only got a raised eyebrow from both Blake and Weiss, as she coughed into her hand in order to ease herself, and then said, "O-Okay, look, we don't have time to just- To stay here and argue with each other. If we don't get to the relics, then we'll use our position in the academy, and all of this will be for nothing."

"Oh, I'll start moving", Blake pointed to Weiss, "When she finally admits that she's wrong. And not just on this."

"Oh, you little-", Weiss cut herself off as she scowled and crossed her arms together, "Well, I'll start moving when she stops antagonising me so much!"

Yang slapped her hand to her face, "Oh god, it's Signal Academy's popular girl drama all over again..."

Ruby then raised up her hands in defence, "Okay, okay, okay... Er, Blake, could you please stop antagonising Weiss, and Weiss, could you please stop trying to... I don't know, pretend that you, y'know, know everything and-"

"I don't know everything", Weiss scowled, surprising everyone once more with her sudden capability for humbleness, before she looked to the side, "Not yet, at least", before turning herself around and walking away, "But what I do know, at least, is that I'm still leagues better than all of you."

"...You don't even know me."

Blake ignored Ruby's whine, and waved to the retreating heiress, "Er, Weiss?"

"What?"

"That's still east."

"You're making that up!"

Blake just relished the smug grin on her face.

Yang tweezed the bridge between her eyes, "Okay, this is ridiculous. I am all up for watching some high school drama as the next girl, but can we all just agree to shut up and get the relics before we lose our spots in Beacon? I can't interrogate Arc- I mean, graduate to become a Huntress- If you 2 are just going to drag us down and-"

A long metal whine in the distance interrupted Yang, and all 4 girls looked through the treelines towards its origin. There, in the distance and closing fast were-

"Airships?" Weiss asked out loud.

"Are those Bullheads?" Blake asked with a sudden nervous tint to her voice.

"If they are, they're not of any make that I recognise."

Indeed, the 4 airships in the distance, and closing fast on their position, were not of any make ever seen before. The biggest one in the group seemed to be about the same size as one of the airships from yesterday, though with a pointed tip at the beginning, slowly expanding out into a long cone-like shape that led to a bulbous main body, with 2 scythe like blade wings angled downwards at a 45 degree angle, and 2 massive glowing blue engines angled near the top of it. And in between these 2 massive engines was the flat-topped bridge of the ship, with machine guns and cannons slotted into ports and potholes all over it's body, and a large hatch at the bottom of the ship's main body, with glowing blue spotlights around the edges of it. The entire ship was coloured a dull metallic silver, with blue paint lines stretching across it in patterns and shapes, and despite its bright colours, left an ominous feeling as it droned through the air.

The other 3 ships accompanying it, however, were much smaller, though they were still large themselves. Twice or 3 times the size of an average Bullhead, they looked more like troop carriers than quick reaction dropships, like those in Atlas. On each side of the silver and blue coloured ships, behind an angled front where the cockpit was safely tucked away behind a glowing blue viewport, there were 3 bulbous shapes, like egg shells, with a glowing blue stipe of light going lengthways down them, and a smooth bottom between them with gun ports attached. At the end of the ship, wedged between the engines, was a long, stick like stern with a long wing facing upwards at the end of it, with strange egg like shapes attached to them, looking like some strange machine out of a sci-fi movie.

There was the sound of something unclamping from a metal object, and from the sides of the larger airship (Where Ruby could now make out multiple docking clamps across the entirety of the ship), A small fighter craft detached itself from the beast and began to speed away towards them. It was a flat faced, single person fighter, coloured silver and blue like the others, with a long arrowhead prow, short stubby stern where the cockpit was, 2 engines built into a pair of stubby wings, and 2 large, cylindrical cannons attached to the bottom of it.

The entire fleet looked like it had been made out of spare parts, like they were fresh out of some junkyard or shipbreaking facility, having the feel like they were assembled by raiders or bandits to them. Ruby had heard of some groups of bandits attempting to become sky pirates through fleets of airships, but none of them had ever succeeded due to fuel demands and maintenance.

But, these ships... There was a strange uniformity and competence to their design. They looked more practical than showing, and if anything... They didn't actually look that intimidating. There were no overtly pointed edges to them, no bitter, threatening colours. They were all rounded edges and bright, welcoming silvers and blues. There was nothing particularly psychologically threatening about them.

All of this- This small fleet of airships- Looked way too competent to have been assembled and piloted by just another group of bandits, which begged the question...

"Do those ships belong to Beacon?" Ruby asked curiously.

"If Beacon did have a fleet, then they surely would've been parading it across Beacon, or transporting us on them. Not only that, but none of them are sporting Valerian colours, or even Beacons", Weiss answered, her rapier/revolver combo weapon now in hand, "And I've never seen that design of ship from Atlas at all. Then again, I doubt that any of us were expecting to be dropped out of Bullheads and into a Grimm infested forest this morning, so perhaps I'm wrong."

"Hey, for all we know, these could be sky pirates, or something", Yang went, her Ember Celica bracelets cocking to life once more as she then said, "Hell, they might be looking for a fight themselves."

"Don't be stupid, Xiao Long. The entirety of the Emerald Forest is express and very much known property of Beacon Academy. Who on Remnant would be stupid enough to attack Beacon, of all places? Especially when there is an army of well trained Huntsmen and Huntresses, all armed for combat, inside?"

* * *

"Glynda... Are those our ships?"

"No, Ozpin, they're not."

Ozpin looked at Glynda, a grave expression on his face.

"Rally the others. Now."

* * *

"Maybe we should just listen to Ruby and get going", Blake said as she began to take several steps backwards, a frightful expression on her face, "I mean, if this is an attack, then its best that we get clear as soon as possible."

"Aw, c'mon, partner, where's the fun in that?" Yang asked as she pumped her fists together, "I say we let them come. For all we know, this could be another part of initiation."

"Blake's right, Yang", Ruby swallowed down as she looked up nervously at the incoming ships, "You said it yourself; Let's just get to the north and get the relics, before-"

{RUMBLE}

"-Those- What the heck!?"

Around them, the ground began to rumble violently. The dirt beneath them was undulating and moving in mass, like insects trying to break out of their cocoons. The 4 girls huddled closely to each other as the ground began to split open in 2 distinct places, cracking open and releasing mounds of grass and rock and dirt, until finally...

The ground exploded.

Columns of dirt and dust reached into the air as giant figures, both of them 5 times the size of Ruby herself, clawed their way out of the rock and filth, coloured black and red and frothing silver spew and saliva, and with piercing eyes that glowed a dull silver. Scabbed over cuts and open wounds covered their entire bodies, and the skin on their bones was putrid and rotting as bone like scabs and boils covered their flesh like armour. One of them looked like an upright Beowolf, missing its mask and an eye, its ribs poking out through its flesh, it's right arm mutated and bigger than the other, more mutilated arm, and its jaw dislocated. The other one looked like a monkey, but missing the top half of its head, having somehow grown mammoth like tusks from its lower jaw, was missing all of the skin at the front of its waist, revealing its intestines to the world, and looked like it was covered in patches of fire dust, with its left arm withered and missing flesh, while its right arm was completely covered in burning hot fire dust.

Husks. These were the Great Grimm type known as Husks. Said to be undead Grimm, brought back to life by some unknown science, these Grimm were an extremely dangerous threat, and were said to be able to revive nearby Grimm from the dead, just with a wave of its hand.

"Um, g-guys", Ruby said to the others as she clutched her Crescent Rose close to herself, all of them gathered in between these 2 massive Grimm as she then finished with, "I think... I think we might be in trouble."

Next to her, Weiss just looked at Ruby with a dull expression, "Wow, you think?"

"...We really need to get out of here."

"Ah, c'mon, we can take them", Yang retorted as she glared up at the Grimm, "I mean, they're only Grimm. I'm sure we've all faced bigger challenges than this."

"Yang, don't be stupid. These are Husks, not your average Beowolf. They're called Great Grimm for a reason", Blake almost yelled back, "We need to move, now."

"Blake's right", Ruby said, "We need to call for the Professors to bail us out. At the very least, we need to lose the big guys before-"

"Um, everyone?"

"Yeah Weiss?"

"Why haven't the Grimm moved?"

Ruby blinked, and then looked between the 2 Husks that stood around them, and realised that Weiss was right. Throughout their entire conversation, neither of the Husks had moved. They could've- And should've, by virtue of common sense- Attacked them whilst they were distracted with their talking.

But they didn't. They just... Stood there, completely still, like they were frozen into statues, unable to move at all.

All they did was just stare down at the 4 girls, and that was it. Not even fidget or blink whatever eyes they had left. They were just... Standing still, like sentries to their charge-

And then, that's when Ruby looked right into the remaining eye of the Beowolf Husk, and she came to a discovery of her own.

 _Silver eyes_ , she thought to herself, _These Grimm have silver eyes..._

Above them, the fighter from before soared down, and hovered directly over them. The 4 girls covered their ears and eyes as the harsh jet streams of the fighter kicked up dirt and dust, and almost deafened them with its loud engines (Blake especially, though Ruby wasn't sure why she was covering up the bow on her head).

Then, the bottom of the ship's body opened up, and a lone figure dropped out and landed gracefully onto the ground. Presumably on autopilot, the fighter ship ascended back into the sky and re-joined the fleet overhead, allowing the girls to uncover their eyes, and look at the figure before them.

It was a woman, with pale, snow-like skin, long white hair, piercing silver eyes-

 _She has silver eyes too_ , Ruby thought to herself in surprise, She must've been what Headmaster Ozpin and Miss Goodwitch were talking about back at the police station.

-And wore a long sleeved dress coloured black, white, and gold, that was patterned by silver roses, and also wore a rose necklace around her neck, and a pendant in the shape of a wolf's head in her hair.

The 2 Husk Grimm around them looked like they were about to make a move, but the silver eyed woman held up a hand, signalling them to stop, and suddenly...

They did. They fell completely still.

The 4 girls' eyes widened in shock.

She was commanding the Grimm.

She was telling the Grimm what to do.

The woman looked at all 4 girls- No, looked at Ruby directly- And smiled.

"Hello there, Ruby Rose", she said, "My name is Baobhan Sith, of the Cult of Silver. What a pleasure it is to finally meet you."

* * *

"Are those ships from Atlas?" Jaune asked as he pointed upwards to the fleet up in the air, "Because they're sporting Atlas' colours."

"They're not of any Atlesian design that I recognise, and believe me, I've been up to Atlas enough times to know what they look like", Pyrrha replied with as they moved out into a wide clearing, near a shallow river with a long strip of dirt path on either side of it that stretched out for miles to see on either end, "It could be a prototype, and Ozpin could've arranged it for a flyby, but I think... No, he might not have told us. He kept the processes of Initiation hidden from us, after all. This might just be another part of it."

"You've visited Atlas?" Nora asked as she looked away from the bird above them for a second, "What was that like?"

Pyrrha mused for a second, before going, "Cold... And stuffy?"

"How can something be both cold and stuffy?"

"You'd be surprised."

"Hm", Jaune muttered to himself, before wincing as the pain in his shoulder came back, rolling it around for a second, before rubbing his shoulder softly as he then said, "We should keep moving. If they really are part of initiation, then it'd be best to avoid them and keep moving. We've been making good time so far. I'd rather we didn't lose our pace."

"And if they're not part of initiation?" Ren asked rhetorically.

"Then we've got even more of a reason to ignore them", he took his hand away from his shoulder, and saw that it was stained a faint red. The blood was still wet. That would be a pain for Future-Jaune to clean out, "We got a river here. Hopefully it's clean water. Anybody need a drink before we go?"

"I'm good", Nora called back as she splashed her feet in the water, whilst Ren just gave a quiet nod. There was a hint of concern to both of them, however. Jaune was barely able to notice. It was probably just worries that there might be a chance that they couldn't get into Beacon. All the more reason to get a move on.

_**JAUNE, THEY'RE WORRIED ABOUT YOU.** _

_**LORD KNOWS WHY.** _

_**SHUT IT, YOU.** _

As if she had been reading his fractured mind, Pyrrha then spoke up with, "Jaune, I need to... I need to speak to you about something", she made no effort to hide the worry of initiation from him.

He winced, and asked her, "What's up?"

"It's about your aura?"

Uh-oh.

He scratched the back of his head (At least, the part that wasn't covered in bandages) With his good arm, "What about it?" he asked.

"Why didn't you activate it?"

"...Er, I didn't think about it?"

JAUNE-

I can fool them, I can fool them...

Pyrrha's concern grew into fear, "Do you... Jaune, you didn't activate it before..."

"Huh?"

"When the skin on your hands was cut... You didn't activate it to heal your wounds."

"Er", he paused, and then awkwardly added, "I mean... I had glass in them. Little tiny fragments of glass", he decided to avoid adding in how that happened. He really didn't want her to know that he had punched a mirror out of schizophrenic anger, "The skin would've- Would've healed around it, and sealed the glass bit within, and-"

"Jaune."

He gulped.

"Do you... Not have your aura unlocked?"

**_TELL HER THE TRUTH._ **

_No._

**_TELL HER._ **

_No!_

**_TELL HER._ **

**_TELL HER._ **

**_TELL HER._ **

**_TELL HER._ **

**_TELL HER._ **

**_TELL HER._ **

**_TELL HER._ **

**_TELL HER._ **

**_TELL._ **

**_HER._ **

**_THE._ **

**_TRUTH._ **

_…_

**_SHE ONLY WANTS TO HELP._ **

_…How can you be sure?_

**_I JUST KNOW._ **

"...No, I...", a long pause, and then, "I don't have it unlocked..."

There was a longer pause, and then-

"Oh my god..."

Pyrrha stepped back, and held her hands to her face, "That's why you're so badly wounded... Did you fake... Did you even know-"

"Pyrrha, I was sheltered as a kid, okay? My family coddled me. They never let me train, they never let me learn how to be a Huntsman, I just- Goddammit...", he put his hands to his face, and then, "Look, can we just... Can we just drop this please? I want to get you guys through initiation, alright? Let me do that. If you want to report me afterwards, then fine. If you want to kick me out, then fine. Do whatever you have to do, I won't stop you."

_**JAUNE...** _

"Just let me help you first", Jaune ignored the voice in his head as he finished off with, "It's the least I can do for forcing you guys to carry me all the way here... And for putting up with my worthless ass so far."

Silence reigned for a few long moments. It almost felt like an eternity. Jaune hated it. Where the 3 of them going to leave him behind, like the carry-on he was? He wouldn't blame them if they did.

The silence lasted for a few more uncomfortable seconds, before Pyrrha began to approach Jaune. Oh god, she was going to push him into the stream behind him and be done with him, wasn't she? He braced for the sudden berating that was about to-

"Let me unlock your aura."

Eh?

_**SEE? SHE'S NICE.** _

_**NOT AS NICE AS SHE-** _

_**SERIOUSLY, SHUT IT.** _

"Wait, isn't that, like, a super bad thing to do?" oh yeah, Nora and Ren were still here, weren't they? He felt bad for forgetting them, "I mean like, isn't unlocking another person's aura illegal?"

"What?"

"It is illegal in the kingdoms to unlock a person's aura without a certain certificate, yes", Ren added in, "Of course, most of the time, Huntsmen and Huntresses usually unlock their aura by themselves, so the problem is usually negated. However, civilians aren't allowed to have their aura unlocked, because if everyone was running around with semblances, then it would be unbound amounts of chaos."

All Jaune got from that was the ability to unlock aura by himself. He had to learn how to do that.

Pyrrha waved it off, "It's fine."

"Wait, Pyrrha, I-I don't want you to get into trouble just because of me", Jaune put up his hands in defence, "Look, I'll take my booting out with dignity, but I won't let you get into trouble just- Just because of-"

"Jaune."

He stopped.

"You asked me to trust you... Now I'm asking you to trust me."

That... Hit a lot deeper than he would've liked it too.

To be honest, it wasn't that he didn't want to look weak. It was that he didn't want to look incompetent. Being weak and being incompetent were 2 different things, after all. If he let Pyrrha unlock his aura, thereby doing something apparently illegal for her to do, then he didn't want her to get in trouble for his own incompetence, no matter how badly he tried to hide it.

**_JAUNE._ **

_What?_

**_IT'S OKAY TO BE SELFISH SOMETIMES._ **

_…_

Was it really okay for him to do this? To leech off of Pyrrha like this?

Something told him she wouldn't take no for an answer anyways.

Why, though? Why would she risk herself- Put herself out on the line- For him of all people? He wasn't exactly anything to ride home about at all. The exact opposite in fact.

So why was she offering to unlock his aura for him?

He felt like the answer should be obvious, but it wasn't.

So, he finally just responded with a quiet, "...Okay then."

Pyrrha smiled, "Thank you."

Why was she thanking him? Shouldn't it be the other way around? People were confusing.

Pyrrha placed a hand against his good shoulder (Not the one that he had, not too long ago, pulled out of its socket, thankfully), And suddenly, a red glow came over her, and began to seep into his pours, and right into his very soul and core being, the sudden feelings coming across him being alien and indescribable.

Oh gods, it was indescribable. It was so alien to him. It was like whatever she was pouring into him was fitting itself into sockets and empty gaps within his very being, filling in the missing parts and blanks and gaps, like his soul had been a sieve before, letting everything else pour through. Weaves of bright red thread tied themselves around his being as he felt pieces began to fit into place like a jigsaw puzzle, parts that he didn't even know existed forming a cohesive whole, his very soul like a flowerbed waiting to bloom with a thousand other confusing and messy metaphors for trying to describe the indescribable.

Pyrrha smiled as an ethereal glow came over her, and with a soft sigh, her lips parted, and she began to sing her angel's song.

"For it is-"

**"No."**

Everyone stopped, everyone blinked, and then everyone looked around.

It was a voice. An alien voice, yet distinctly feminine. Someone had just called out to them, quietly, and yet somehow with a booming tone.

"What the...", Jaune began in confusion, "Who was... Did anybody else here that?" that couldn't be another one of his voices, right? He would've heard this one before.

"Yeah", Nora began as she stepped out of the water, unfolding her giant hammer from her back and hefting it in her hand, readying herself for anything that might come out at them. At least Jaune wasn't the only person who had heard that voice. He wasn't going completely insane yet. That was reassuring.

"Me too", Ren said as he pulled out his guns, "Who was that?"

**"I will not allow it."**

Pyrrha pulled out her spear and shield, and looked around to the trees, "Whoever you are, come out, so we may see you."

Jaune followed suit, bringing Crocea Mors to bear and unfolding his shield in his hand, "Won't allow what?" he wondered to himself, before asking out loud, "Won't allow what? Who are you?"

**"I will not allow them to take you."**

Jaune was just getting more confused. Who was this person, and...

Wait.

That voice...

**_IT CAN'T BE... WE JUST SAW HER YESTERDAY._ **

**_WHAT IS IT... WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?_ **

_Guys? What's going on up there?_

"Take what?" Ren asked out loud, "What are you talking about?"

**"Because you are mine."**

Everyone blinked in surprise.

What was... What was this woman talking about?

There was rustling in the trees behind them, on the other side of the shallow stream. They all wheeled around, and saw something coming out from between the trees. Covered in black fur and skin, with blood red eyes and bony white armour plating and masks covering it ( _Just like the bird from before_ , Jaune noted), This creature looked like a wolf, walking on all 4s and snarling at them.

"A Beowolf?" Ren asked out loud. So that was what this creature was called. Good to know. Thanks, Ren.

He assumed this creature to be a Grimm, and then asked them, "Can, um, can Grimm talk?"

"No", Pyrrha said, "Never."

The Beowolf Grimm (Once again, thanks Ren) Saw the 4 of them hurdled together with their weapons drawn, and in an animalistic rage, snarled, roared, and then prepared to charge at them.

The 4 of them readied themselves against the Grimm's inevitable attack. But...

It never came.

In a flash of silver light, the Grimm turned rock solid. Quite literally, in fact, since it was now just a lifeless stone statue.

Floating right above it now, was a bright silver light, pulsing and glowing red every now and then as it floated through the air like a phantom, or a spirit.

"Okay... That's new", Nora said uncertainly.

"Everyone", Pyrrha began, "I don't think it was the Grimm that was talking..."

The ball of silver light seemed to readjust itself every now and then, as if it was looking at them, judging them, shaping them up for all of their strengths and weaknesses. It must be analysing them, calculating their every move and moves, thinking about the best possible outcome to whatever it was planning, and-

It shot forwards and launched itself right into Nora.

There was no sudden force of impact, but a single second afterwards, Nora let out a cry of pain as she collapsed to the floor, clutching her stomach as she groaned and whimpered in agony.

"NORA!" Ren cried out in panic as he-

_**JAUNE, HELP HER!** _

-Jaune, and Pyrrha rushed down to the side, to see her clutching her hammer close to the chest, her entire body vibrating as she bit down on her lip so hard that she drew glowing red blood.

"R-Ren...", Nora whimpered as red veins began to cover her, "Help me... I feel... I feel funny..."

"Nora, Nora please, I just- What's going on? What did that thing do to you?!" Ren asked as a glowing white line began to emerge on her stomach, and-

Nora screamed in pain as white liquid began to pour out of the crack in her stomach. Her clothes seemed to be melting into her own skin and dissolving into nothingness as her body began to glow a milky white, her hair turning the same colour as tears streamed out of her eyes, "It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! Oh fuck, it hurts!"

"Nora, please, what's going on?! What's it doing to you!?"

"I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die I don't want to die!"

Jaune turned to Pyrrha, "Pyrrha, you know about this aura shit, right?! What the fuck was that thing, and-"

"I don't know!" Pyrrha exclaimed as she tried to use her own aura to heal Nora, to no effect, "I just- Oh god, I've never seen anything like this before!"

"Please... I'm scared..."

Ren took Nora's one hand, and Jaune and Pyrrha took the other into their own, "Nora, please, I-I need you to fight this thing off!"

"I can't... I'm scared- AUGH!" she screamed again, and soon, her mouth had dissolved away into the milky white substance that now made up her entire body, her hair having dissolved away as well, along with her nose, ears, and even her clothing, leaving nothing but a blank slate across her entire body, with only a pair of teal coloured eyes that were slowing being invaded by silver left, "Oh gods, its like my aura is being turned inside out!"

"Nora, please, fight it! Whatever this thing is doing to you, you have to fight it!"

"I-I can't..."

"I know you can, Nora! You're the toughest fighter I know! You've got through everything that's ever been thrown at you! You can sure as hell get through this!"

"R-Ren..."

"Nora, please, don't go!"

"I-I lo-"

She screamed in complete and utter agony, and the 3 surrounding her were thrown back by an explosion of light and what Jaune assumed to be pure aura.

Slamming against the ground harshly, the 3 initiates groaned in pain, before remembering what happened to their friend, and jumping back up to their feet, weapons ready, only to see...

Nora was back up onto her feet, standing completely still next to the river.

Except, it wasn't Nora. Not anymore. It was just a blank slate. A humanoid creature with no identifiable features, no skin tone, no eyes, mouth, ears, nose, nothing at all. Just a being that looked like it was made entirely out of glowing white paint. Actually, no, not white. More like...

More like silver.

Then, the figure began to mutate. Clothing began to form around its body out of the milky ether that made up its body. Pure silver essence gave way to a dress that reached down to their- To her- Ankles, with flatfooted ballerina shoes, sleeves without any shoulders on them, a choker around her neck that connected to the front of her dress, right where her covered breasts were, with a rose flower covering her upper chest, and a long cloak that covered her head, all the way down to her feet.

Identifiable facial features were birthed, now, giving way to long straight hair that flowed downwards to her waist underneath her cloak and over her shoulders, with a flower pendant in her hair as soft cheeks birthed a soft red hue. Eyes, ears, mouth, and nose gave way to colour as her hair was coloured a black to red gradient, and her eyes were a lively silver, her clothes changing to black and red as she turned in place, to stare at Jaune directly.

_**HOW IS... THIS CAN'T BE...** _

_**BUT IT IS.** _

Jaune shared in his voices' disbelief, as he stared at the sight before him. The hair was different, as was the clothing, and she did look a bit older, but not a lot. However, her face, her eyes, her choice of gothic clothing and colours... It was impossible to forget who those belonged to.

 _After all, she's a hard person to forget_ , Jaune thought to himself, as he stared at the doppelganger of Ruby Rose.


	6. Beacon part 5: Emergences and Invasions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Cult of Silver are on the rise, and everyone is caught in the crossfire.
> 
> It's time for them to make their presence known, all across Remnant.

**Main theme:** _[Death Hymn by Lucas King](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmTN8wu2AM8)  
_ **Arc theme:** _[Rise from the Destiny 2 soundtrack](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=intmEEVphig)  
_ **Theme:** _[Obsession](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6enGUkhv4P0)_[ _from the Destiny 2: Beyond Light soundtrack_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6enGUkhv4P0)

* * *

"N-Nora?"

**"..."**

Nora... Can you... Can you hear me?"

**"..."**

Jaune, Pyrrha, and Ren just stared at the silent clone of Ruby Rose, standing still where once Nora had been laying, where she had once been standing, in the body that she had once been using.

This thing that wore the face and colours of Ruby was... Possessing Nora? Controlling her? He didn't know at all.

What he did know, was that whatever- Whoever- Was possessing Nora's body, it had... Utterly changed her. Remoulded her like putty. Even her clothing was lost to that soup that she had briefly turned into, now changed into the black and red dress and cloak that she wore now, and her weapon, that hammer that she once held... It was gone. Replaced by a glowing silver clay in her hand as she let them limply hang at her side.

There was no emotion on her face. No happiness, no sadness. No joy, no anger. Nothing. Just an empty, emotionless void of nothingness.

"What are you?..." Ren slowly began, before exploding with, "What did you do to Nora?!"

**"..."**

He pulled out his guns and aimed it at the faux-Ruby, "ANSWER ME!"

"Ren, don't!" Jaune yelled out to him, Corcea Mors still pointed at the false Ruby, "Nora might still be inside of that thing!"

"He's right!" Pyrrha added, "We don't know if it's possessing Nora or otherwise! We might hurt her- Or even kill her!- If we attack this person!"

Ren growled in frustration, "Then what do you propose we do!?"

"...I don't know," Jaune answered honestly, before turning inwards to himself, _Guys, any help here?_

_**I... I DON'T KNOW. THIS ISN'T RUBY'S SEMBLANCE. WE SAW IT YESTERDAY! IT CAN'T BE HER!** _

_**IT COULD BE AN EXTENSION OF THE SILVER EYED POWER, OR MOST LIKELY A SEMBLANCE. MAYBE RUBY ROSE HAS A TWIN OR-** _

_**SHE DOESN'T.** _

_**…RIGHT.** _

_Silver eyes? What are you... Whatever_ , Jaune thought to himself, filing it away for later, as he stared back at the false Ruby Rose, and then-

A thought came to his mind.

Oh...

Oh!

…

It might be, it might not be...

_**IT CAN'T BE... IT JUST CAN'T BE...** _

But it didn't hurt to ask.

"S... Summer?" he began, lowering his sword slightly, "...Summer Rose?"

**"..."**

That finally caught the not-Ruby's attention. Or at least made her react as she looked intently at him and teetered her head to the side. Still no emotion on her face at all.

Pyrrha briefly looked over to him in surprise, "Jaune, what are you doing?"

"I think... I think that might be Summer Rose."

"How can you tell?"

"Because barring the longer hair and different dress, she looks the exact same as Ruby, her daughter. And seeing as how I saw her burst into rose petals yesterday, I'm going to take it that her semblance isn't turning into a ball of light and possessing-"

It was only then that he realised how much closer this person that looked like Ruby had gotten, now staring up directly at him with that same look of pure, unadulterated apathy on her face. The others circled around her, surrounding the person that was possessing Nora, and all Jaune could do was take a step back in surprise as he himself ended up staring into her eyes.

Her lifeless, dull eyes.

Long ago, he had learnt an important lesson about a person's eyes: They react to emotion by expanding or retracting themselves, with multiple variations for those emotions.

For positive emotions, the eyes expanded.

For negative emotions, they retracted.

Her eyes neither expanded nor retracted. They just were. Dull voids of emptiness, sucking up everything into a hollow shell of a person, devoid of anything and everything.

"S-Summer..."

**"..."**

"Summer... Let go of Nora..."

**"..."**

"Give her back her body."

**"..."**

"Summer!"

**"..."**

He raised his sword once more, and, in a much firmer voice, went, "Give Nora back her body, or I swear to god, I'll-"

_**THAT'S NOT HER.** _

_What?_

_**THAT'S NOT HER.** _

_**THAT'S NOT HER.** _

_**THAT'S NOT HER.** _

_**THAT'S NOT HER.** _

_**THAT'S NOT HER.** _

_**THAT'S NOT HER.** _

_**THAT'S NOT HER.** _

_**THAT'S NOT HER.** _

_**THAT'S NOT HER.** _

_**THAT'S NOT HER.** _

_**THAT'S NOT HER.** _

_**THAT'S NOT HER.** _

_How can you-_

**_THAT'S NOT ME!_ **

_…What?_

**_…JAUNE… I-_ **

The false Ruby that was also not Summer then did something remarkable.

Her pupils expanded.

**"I love you."**

"...Wha-"

And then...

Pain.

Pain.

Pain.

Pain.

Pain.

Pain.

Pain.

Pain.

Pain.

Pain.

Pain.

Pain.

Pain.

Pain.

Pain.

Pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain

* * *

In Beacon Academy, Stella- The girl with stars in her eyes- Fell to the ground and screamed.

* * *

_**Flashes.** _

_**Flashes of things that once were and could very well be. People who did and didn't exist at the same time. Anomalies and creatures of black fur and white teeth and red eyes and people who serve monsters and silver silver silver silver silver silver silver silver silver silver eyes.** _

_**Images of white rooms and red stained walls and crying women in laboratories and shell shocked men reminding themselves of the monsters that they were forced to be and the children that were born afterwards into a cruel unjust world.** _

_**Scenes of blood and bodies and fire and mountains of corpses as black blood leaked into the soil and poisoned everything, turning oceans dark and the sky red as everything falls to pieces.** _

_**He's screaming. He's crying. And yet the silver nothingness offers him something other than an empty promise of love that it gives everyone else.** _

_**It promises him love. Nothing but love. Nothing but love love love love love love love love love love love love because it loves him so much.** _

_**Because in the darkness of its light, it only dreamt of Jaune. It only thought of Jaune. Jaune Jaune Jaune Jaune** _

_**JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE JAUNE** _

_**Stop.** _

_**A shield is brought forth.** _

_**A silver lock.** _

_**This creature will go no further.** _

_**NOT IF I HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT IT** _

"JAUNE!"

Something grabbed him and tackled him down to the side as a red tendril shot out of the fake-Ruby's back and into the ground with enough forth to create a shockwave and send the 3 initiates around them almost flying as a large crater was formed in the rock and soil below.

It took Jaune a few seconds to see that it had been Pyrrha who had tackled him out of the way.

It took him a few more to realise that he had been bleeding from his ears, nose, and eyes.

He and Pyrrha jumped up from the muddy ground, just as another red tendril, this time from the fake-Ruby's shoulder, slammed into the ground where they once stood once again, cutting the floor open like a knife. Several more tendrils emerged from the fake-Ruby's body, sharpening their ends into blades and daggers, digging them deep into the ground, like plant roots roaming through fresh soil, before-

{RUMBLE}

{KA-BOOM}

-The world underneath them exploded into a thousand pieces, raining rock and dirt and entire chunks of earth the size of school buses down onto them. Jaune had to quickly dash out of the way, pulling Pyrrha along with him, in order to avoid a giant boulder from slamming into them and crushing them to death.

Underneath them, the ground began to move like waves, cracking open and spewing sharp red tendrils like a leviathan of legends. The tendrils shot up, pulling up chunks of rock and earth with them like fireballs, raining dirt and stone down onto the 3 initiates like hail as the ground beneath them shook and rolled like a tidal wave, folding over itself into a sea of dirt and water from the river, splashing them with soggy mud and wet stone as those red tendrils lashed out at them, whipping themselves around and lashing at skin and clothing, trying to wrap themselves around them as they dodged and barrel rolled around the battlefield.

Avoiding another giant slab of rock from crushing them, Jaune and Pyrrha leaped over a moving slab of rock, and jumped off another undulating slab before it rolled over itself and crushed them. All the while Pyrrha and Ren busied themselves taking pot-shots at the fake-Ruby, whilst they all cut apart the red tendrils that were endlessly wriggling and lashing out at them.

None of this bothered the fake-Ruby, as she continued to tear up and destroy the world around her, kicking up trees and boulders, launching them into the air and sending them down like bullets and missiles, cracking open the earthly ocean underneath them even further.

Soon, everything around them was torn up and shredded, turning into a wetting ocean of mud and rock. Whatever this thing was, it was an incredibly powerful creature.

They couldn't win against it.

"We can't win this fight," Jaune muttered to himself as his sword sliced through another tendril, "We need to run," over the chaos, he then yelled out to the others, "We need to run!"

"What?!" it was Ren who yelled this out as he barrel rolled over a splitting chunk of ground as a pair of tendrils whipped at him, before Ren sliced them in half as he landed on the ground, "We can't just run! Nora's still in that thing- AUGH!"

He cried out in surprise as a red tendril wrapped itself around his legs and pulled him up into the sky, leaving him dangling upside down as the fake-Ruby tilted her head to the side to look at him, bringing him closer to her as-

Pyrrha's shield was flung from her arm and sliced through the long red tendril, the limb dissipating as Ren fell back to the ground, Pyrrha and Jaune catching him before he could crash into the ground.

"For god's sake, we can't fight this thing! We need to move!" there was no room for argument in Jaune's voice, and Pyrrha and Ren nodded their compliance, though the latter of them did so with extreme hesitance.

Before they made a move, though, Jaune then turned to the fake-Ruby, and yelled out:

"Nora! If you can hear me in there, we are going to save you! If you really are in there, then fight that thing! I know you can!"

**"..."**

The fake-Ruby didn't answer as she continued to lash out at them, whipping red tendrils and launching rocks like missiles at them, the world breaking apart around the initiates as they ran.

Oh, how they ran. They ran with the strength of a lion at their back, all the while a beast with the tenacity and strength of a wolf chased after them with a relentless, yet emotionless, gaze.

All the while, Jaune just gazed into himself, and thought, _…Summer?_

**_…YES?_ **

_When all of this is over, you and I are going to have a talk._

* * *

Everything can be traced back to its beginnings, from the many, to the 4, to the 1, and then to the none.

In the beginning, there was nothingness. There was not even nothing, for nothing can be filled with something. Instead, there was just absence. Emptiness. A void where existence was not even a thought.

Then, there was something.

The first god.

The Grand Dragon, known as Orion.

And from her was birthed the empty universe, and the Pantheon of Gods.

The 3 siblings, known as Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka, otherwise known as the Brother of Light, the Brother of Dark, and the Sister of Existence.

For eons, they ruled over the new nothingness that was the universe, a swirling emptiness that they made their throne. But in this emptiness, the 3 siblings found themselves yearning for somethingness, but the Grand Dragon, Orion, lived for the nothingness, and wanted no more.

And so began the God War, a long conflict between the 3 siblings and their mother, with their clashes, impacts and ripostes spawning the very fabric of existence around them as they waged their war against each other.

Eventually, the 3 siblings were able to slay their mother, but at a terrible price: Their sister, the Sister of Existence was slain herself, and from her death came the final birth of reality itself, of time and space itself.

And with Orion's death, her body curled onto itself, and formed the world itself.

The remnants of her corpse would become Remnant itself.

And on this new world, the 2 Brothers would create the yin and the yang of Remnant. The God of Light would create mankind, and bless them with the 4 greatest gifts.

Creation.

Knowledge.

Choice.

Destruction.

The God of Darkness, meanwhile, would create the Creatures of Grimm, to serve as an eternal whetstone for mankind to sharpen their blades with, to prove their worth to the gods, so that when their time to pass on came, they would ascend to Heaven as righteous warriors, earning their place in the kingdom that was awaiting them.

And so, with the world of Remnant crafted and moulded from the corpse of their mother, the Brother Gods would leave Remnant to allow mankind to flourish and survive on its own, shattering its moon as they went, so that man might remember the struggles that they have faced, and surely will face in the times to come.

Or so the story of the Brother Gods goes.

Ruby was never sure about religions, to be honest. She had been told that her mother was deeply religious, and believed in the fait of the Brother Gods, as did Uncle Qrow, even if he never let it show, but truth be told, she had never gotten into religion herself. She could understand why so many people would find it so attractive, but she had never really given it much thought.

And in truth, she had never really known what to believe about gods. She supposed that she was agnostic, in that regard, seeing as she had never been sure about what to believe in when it came to the divine.

And yet, as she stared into the eyes of the woman before her- Baobhan Sith, of the Cult of Silver- And looked right into her swirling, pulsating, almost glowing eyes of silver, she knew she was staring at the definition of divinity itself.

There was an ethereal glow to this woman with white hair and a black dress, a twinkle in her eyes that looked like swirling galaxies of silver as she looked down upon them- Upon her- With a tilted head and a curious smile.

Overhead, the Husk Grimm remained as still as statues, looking down upon the 4 girls beneath them as Yang, Blake, and Weiss aimed their guns up at them, their bodies poised like coils, ready to pounce on the Great Grimm around them as if that was a fight that they could win.

And yet, Ruby did not pay any attention to any of them. She was too focused on the woman in front of them to care. There was just... Something about her... About her eyes...

Her silver eyes...

Ozpin called out her silver eyes. He froze up when Miss Goodwitch mentioned the silver eyes. The 2 people that she saw the night that she thought Roman had silver eyes.

She herself had silver eyes, the same as her mother.

And now here was this woman, Baobhan Sith, with silver eyes as well, commanding a supposedly undead type of Grimm with glowing silver eyes, wanting to talk to Ruby herself.

Silver eyes... What was so important about silver eyes?

"You know, you don't have to stare so much", Baobahn rested her hand on her cheek, and tilted her face to the side as if she was embarrassed, "I am but a fair young woman, after all."

"Yeah? Then, as the fair young maiden that you are", Yang sarcastically began, "You mind telling these Grimm to back off, because this one's looking at me funny!"

"How are you even able to control these beasts?" Weiss asked loudly- Almost yelled- As she gestured her weapon at the Grimm, and then her other hand to Ruby as she went, "And what do you want with her?"

"Oh, the Husks?" Baobhan gestured a hand to the towering, mutilated Grimm as she giggled, "Ah, it is a fairly simple matter, to control them. Such primitive beasts, the Grimm. Our kind make up so many stories about these monsters- About them being the vengeful spirits of animals, demons from Hell, so on, so forth- And yet, all that they are is just programmable matter."

She stretched herself over, and scraped her hand over the leg of one of the Husks. A sludge of black matter formed into her hand, before coalescing into a dark ball, trapped by silver light.

"Dark matter, is what they are. Just bubbling balls of hate, with no will, and no soul of their own. And since they have no soul, that means that they're just empty piles of matter, waiting to be reprogrammed."

She let go of whatever hold that she had on the Grimm matter, and it collapsed into a disintegrating sludge on the ground.

"At least, for the Husks, it is, due to their... Special origins, you see. For other Grimm, it is a much more difficult task that you would think. It would take an exceptionally strong individual to be able to control and manipulate Grimm matter. More specifically, strong individuals with the gifts of the gods. Like that of the God of Darkness' black magics, or the God of Light's eyes..."

She closed her eye and tapped her eyelid.

"Our eyes."

"Silver eyes?" Ruby asked quietly to herself.

Baobhan heard her, though, and went, "Exactly," she began to walk closer to her, rolling her hand in the air as she went, "Silver-Eyed Warriors, that's what our kind is called. Lost to legend and myth now, unfortunately, due to the Grimm and their masters continuously hunting us down," she paused, and then smiled some more, "Much like your mother, Ruby."

"..."

What?

What did she say?

What about her mother?

What about Summer Rose?

"What does that mean?!" Ruby didn't need to look behind herself to know that Yang's eyes had turned red, "What do you know about Summer?!"

"Yang-"

She curtly ignored Blake as she continued with, "Answer me!"

"Oh, not that much, I'm afraid," Baobhan began, "Only that she was hunted down like a dog because of her eyes after trying to pull some grand stand against Salem. It was why she left, you know? A desire to protect her children, you, from Salem and her dogs. And die like a dog herself, she did. All because of her silver eyes."

"What do you want?"

Baobhan blinked, as if she was surprised by Ruby's sudden curt question. The girl in question had her head tilted down, her eyes shadowed by her hair.

Her hands were shaking.

Baobhan tilted her head to the side, and then smiled softly, "Oh, I'm sorry, Ruby. I didn't mean to offend you. I just cannot help but find myself vexed by Summer's actions, is all. I know what it is like to lose a mother, is all."

Yang looked like she was about to make a move. Same as Weiss and Blake. However, the 2 Husks above them stomped forwards, towering over them and glowering their glowing eyes at them, bloody saliva dripping from their shattered jaws as they guarded their master from the 3 girls.

Ruby felt a hand caress her cheek, and looked up to see Baobhan suddenly over her, wiping a tear that had rolled down her cheek, and shushing her quiet, "It's okay to be sad, Ruby... It's okay to be sad."

"...What. Do. You. Want?" Ruby tried her best to be threatening, but even she knew that it wasn't working.

"For you to join us."

She blinked, "W-What?"

Baobhan's smile increased, "For you to join the Cult of Silver."

"A cult?" it was Weiss who asked, "You want this girl to join a cult, of all things?"

"Well, it's not really a cult," Baobhan said, before scratching her cheek awkwardly and going, "Except it sort of is, I suppose... The name is quite fetching though, isn't it?"

"What?"

"It is quite phonetically pleasing, is it not?"

This time, it was Blake who went, "You're a cultist. You're admitting to being part of a cult. Cults don't have a good reputation for a reason, you know."

"Only because of what they've done," Baobhan replied, "All the horrible things they've done. What we are building is a haven. A safe place for our kind", she looked back down to Ruby, "A safe haven for us Silver-Eyed Warriors."

"'Silver-Eyed Warriors', 'Salem', 'Masters of the Grimm', you're speaking nothing but nonsense!" Weiss called out, "If you think that any of us will be persuaded to join a cult of all things, just because of the mad ramblings of a single woman, then think again!"

Baobhan's smile dropped, and she looked at Weiss with a dull look on her face, "You think that we are a joke, Weiss?" the girl in question was surprised with how she addressed her so casually, "You believe that we are a joke? A dull speck upon this duller rock?"

Weiss leaned back slightly, then straightened herself, "Your kind usually are."

"...You know what, Weiss?... You're right."

She tilted her head to the side.

"Words do not justify my claims, do they? Nor do they bring faith to our name. All I have offered you is empty words."

"That, and you've been trash talking my mum," Yang growled, only to be stopped by Blake via a hand on her shoulder.

"I suppose so, but still, you believe me, and my people, to be weak. Foolish."

"I never said-"

Baobhan raised her hand-

"Perhaps a demonstration of our power is needed."

-And snapped her fingers.

The 2 Husk Grimm above them roared gurgled cries as their eyes flashed silver, and they both lunged downwards towards the girls.

Ruby reached for her Crescent Rose on her back, but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. Baobhan's hand.

With a smile, the woman's aura flashed-

(FTZZ}

-And in a crackle of electricity, she found herself suddenly on a cliff face on the other side of the Emerald Forest, overlooking every square inch acre of tree and otherwise.

As Ruby propped herself off of the ground, she shook her head, and tried to figure out what just happened.

"Teleportation," Baobhan answered for her, "I can teleport. That's my semblance."

Ruby blinked, and then asked, "If you can teleport, then why bother coming down in an airship?"

Baobhan shrugged, "Dramatic entrances."

Ruby's mind then caught back up with her, "Yang... And the others," she scowled at Baobhan, "What did you do to them? Why did you send the Husks on them?! Dammit, what did you do?!"

"I merely wished to show them a demonstration of our power," Baobhan added in as she pulled out a scroll and sent a text message to... Someone- Ruby didn't know who- Before putting it away and pointing down into the forest below, "So look. See what power we wrought."

Ruby forced herself to do as she was told, and her eyes widened at the sight before her.

It was an invasion. It was a full invasion of the Emerald Forest.

the 3 smaller ships overhead had began to patrol the skies and perimeter of the entire forest, dropping off soldiers to set up checkpoints and patrols as the mothership in the centre of the forest began to deploy waves of its own troops down below in drop pods and ships, locking down the entire forest, whilst the fighter craft overhead did run across the entire forest, firing its guns into the forest below, flushing out initiates into the open, making them easy pickings for the troops below.

She could see the cultists and soldiers that these ships were dropping off. Men and women clad in silver and blue winter cloaks and fur and armour, armed with cobbled together rifles and rocket launchers that gave off ominous blue glows. With them, from the 3 troop carriers, several of the egg-like shapes attached to their prows dropped to the ground, uncurling themselves into either 4-legged walker droids the size of one of those prototype Paladin-class robots that she had seen Atlas display, coloured silver with glowing blue trimmings stretching over it, red optics on its bottom, with a swivel cannon strapped just below it, or into tall, 2-legged walkers with long hind legs, it's large boxy head, with a single burning yellow optic in its centre, like a searchlight, held on a swivel over a thin waist, with 2 square pods attached to the top of them, and a long pair of antennas stretching out from on top of them.

"Impressed?" Ruby heard Baobhan asked, "Fully capable machines and craft, built from scrap and shipbreaking yards. Leftovers of endless battles since the Great War and beyond, between mankind against the Grimm, or mankind against itself. We have quite the savvy engineers and inventors, you know," she rolled her hand in the air, "Then again, it is but a demonstration. These are just Cihuateteo's side project, after all. To be honest, I never expected him to get anywhere with it, but what do you know? Our little boy is an inventor at his heart! Even if he never lets it show."

Baobhan saw Ruby's confused look.

"Sorry, I was talking about my fellow Aspect. Cihuateteo is the Aspect of Awe, and I", she did a little curtsey, "Am the Aspect of Inspiration. And before you ask, yes, us Aspects are in charge of the Cult of Silver, and yes," she tilted her head to the side, "We are all Silver-Eyed Warriors."

Ruby blinked, and then looked back down into the forest, "What is this? What are you doing?"

Sounds of gunfire and explosions began to sound off in the forest below, as Baobhan just sighed and said, "You know, you should be thankful that it's not Hsi-Hsue-Kue, the Aspect of Pride, up here instead of me, when you asked that. When it comes to conversations about battle, he tends to get a little..."

* * *

_"EXCUSE ME SIR! DO YOU HAVE TIME TO SPEAK ABOUT OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR, HIGH EXPLOSIVES?!"_

_{KA-BOOM}_

* * *

"...Explosive."

"What are you talking about?!" Ruby yelled at her. She was having a very stressful time right now, and she would just like it if this strange woman would just start making sense! "Why are you doing all of this?! Are you attacking us?!"

"Well, yes, as a demonstration, of course", Baobhan calmly said, "I did say this, Ruby. You don't need to be so aggressive about it. When we win, we would've shown you our power. Think of it like one of those military parades that Atlas is so fond of throwing."

"You seriously expect that you're going to win this?" if Ruby was a more prideful person, she would've laughed, "Lady, I hate to tell you this, but there are 2000 armed and well-trained Huntsmen in training down in that forest, and you've only brought, what, a few hundred grunts? You're at a huge numerical disadvantage, and I know for a fact that Ozpin will be here soon with a bucket load of Huntsmen from Beacon. There is no way that you can win this fight."

"Oh, I don't know," there was a hint of smugness to Baobhan now, as she pointed back down to the forest, "We'll be gone by the time Ozma gets here-"

Ozma? Did she mean Ozpin?

"-And besides, I think we're doing quite well."

In confusion, Ruby looked back down into the forest below, to see...

Chaos.

Great pillars of silver ice began to grow rapidly from the ground, alienating between single strikes and entire rows of ice. Columns of smoke began to rise into the air as the Emerald Forest began to burn, and was alit in the morning light by tracer fire and rocket blasts. Entire groups of initiates began to retreat out of the clearings and into the trees as they were fired upon from both the ground and the air. One group of initiates was caught out in the open and fired upon from one of the troop carriers up in the air, killing them all to a man. Another group was rounded up and collared, dragged off into a landing troop carrier and flown away.

"So many potential recruits for us... The reaping of our harvest shall be bountiful indeed."

Ruby looked back to her, "What are you-"

A finger pressed against her forehead.

"Awaken."

And then, there was pain, and a blinding light.

Ruby screamed as she fell back down to the ground, clutching her hands over her eyes as they began to cry a stream of brilliant white light. Her eyes seemed to burn and shrivel up only to be regrown and then shrivel up again as whatever Baobhan did to her remade her aura- Her very soul- And then broke it down just to remake it again.

Flashes of light and images began to roll around her mind as her aura flared and flared a bright red, and then a bright silver. Such silver aura began to crackle around her hands like electricity, burning her flesh and cooking her alive as her aura repaired it like gel over a singed layer of skin. The sleeves of her dress were burnt into ribbons of smoking fabric, still cooking under silver energy and fire as her eyelids burnt, healed themselves, burnt, and then healed themselves all over again.

The flashes continued, showing her more and more things and places and times and what-have-beens and what-should've-beens as people and places came to her mind.

A dark skinned girl, barely a child, giggling giddily as she stood over a church of blood with a misplaced innocence amongst the bloody and the broken.

A man in a labcoat standing over a Beowolf with a smile on his face.

A girl with long hair and a dress, defending an entire kingdom by herself.

A reaper of the darkness, now lost to the wind.

A man lording over an entire kingdom, ruling like a tyrant over his people.

A woman who hid in the woods, sparing those around her from the monsters of the night.

An old man with a kind heart, and a kinder soul.

A woman with no emotions, serving only the will of the good.

And finally, a woman in a white cloak, standing off against an army of Grimm, knowing that she will not survive, but continuing on regardless.

Her mother.

Summer Rose.

The pain stopped, and Ruby Rose laid flat on the ground, her limbs flayed out, and her eyes red and sore, her vision clouded by crimson-

Oh, she had been crying blood.

She went to wipe the blood from her eyes, but a pair of thumbs beat her to it, ghosting themselves over her eyes and rubbing them clean. She looked up once more, and found that it was Baobhan who had cleaned her eyes, rubbing the blood between her thumb and fingers as she smiled.

"Now then, Ruby, let's have a nice talk."

* * *

"I think we... I think we lost that thing..."

Jaune leaned himself against one of the trees next to him as he, Ren, and Pyrrha, hid themselves in a crevice in the forest, surrounded by trees and rocks. Around them, the wildlife was disturbed by constant sounds of battle and war, with flocks of birds flying overhead to escape the growing carnage.

None of that was anywhere near them, though. They were safe. For now, at least. No telling when that fake-Ruby thing would catch up to them.

A ship flew overhead, and they held their breaths, becoming deathly quiet. They became as silent and as still as statues as the ship hovered over the trees for a few moments, before it continued its patrol and flew away.

They sighed in relief, and Jaune muttered to them, "We need to keep moving. Forget the relics, we need to get out of this forest, and away from these guys. Who knows how many fighters they're dropping off just to catch us all."

**_NOT TO MENTION THAT FAKE-RUBY THING. WHO KNOWS HOW LONG IT'LL TAKE TO FIND YOU ALL._ **

_Well I was trying not to think about that, but yes._

**_SORRY._ **

"There's miles of flat land between the forest and any place that we can find cover," Pyrrha added in with as she leaned her back against a rock, checking her weapon as she then went, "We'll be spotted and shot at before we can even make it a bare few feet. Or worse."

Jaune decided not to ask about the 'Or worse' part, "Dammit... There has to be some safe way out of here," he paused, and then said, "Maybe we should just stay here, hide in the trees, keep out of sight of their patrols. For all we know, Ozpin and his lot are on their way here with an army of their own, because I sincerely doubt that this is all part of initiation. If we just hold out until they arrive, then we can team up with them, rescue everyone else in the forest- If they're even in trouble to begin with- Find that thing that's possessing Nora, and... I don't know, punch it out of here? Exorcise her? I don't know."

_**THAT'S ASSUMING THAT THERE EVEN IS A FORCE ON THEIR WAY HERE, AND THAT YOU WON'T BE CAUGHT BEFOREHAND. YOU'RE GOING TO NEED TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF FOR NOW, JAUNE. AT LEAST UNTIL SOMEONE FROM THE KINGDOM CAN DRAG YOU OUT OF THIS MESS.** _

_**BIG BROTHER CAN TAKE THEM! I KNOW IT!** _

_**THERE IS AN ARMY AT HIS DOOR, AND I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT THEY ARE TAKING PRISONERS. WE'RE GOING TO NEED MORE THAN JUST HIM.** _

"Jaune," he heard Ren begin from the rock that he was sitting on, wheezing out a breath (He must not have that much stamina), "That... That thing... The girl who- Who took Nora? Who- Who was that?"

"I-I don't know."

Pyrrha then piped up with, "But... You knew her name..."

"I thought it was Summer," Jaune said to them, uncertainty in his voice as he then said, "Because she... I don't know, she looked like Ruby, but-"

"So she's Ruby?"

"She can't be Ruby."

"Why not?"

"I don't- I don't know, I just... I just don't think that she's Ruby."

"Then who is she?" Ren asked, a growing sense of impatience in his voice as he quickly got up from the rock that he had been sitting on, marching up to Jaune and going, "She was looking at you. Why?"

"I don't know."

"You have to know."

"I don't! The only time I've ever met Ruby and heard about Summer was yesterday!"

"But that thing was looking at you- It possessed Nora just to tell you-"

"I don't know why it did that! I don't know how it did that!"

"Why did it say 'I love you'?!"

"I don't know!"

"Come on, surely you have to know-"

"I DON'T KNOW! Goddammit, if I did know what the hell was going on, I would tell you what the hell was-"

"That's enough!" Pyrrha was the one who yelled this as she got between them and pushed them apart, hands against their chests as she then went, "Dammit, I get it. We're all confused, we're all scared, and we're all angry, okay? I get it. But yelling at each other isn't going to solve our problems. Right now, we're trapped in a forest with an invading army overhead, and a woman capable of possession at our heals. We need to be level headed, and we need to be smart. If we start letting our emotions get the better of us, then we'll be inviting these people, or whatever Grimm are still in this forest, to kill us."

Ren seemed to blister at the comment about emotions, but then took a deep breath as he cooled himself, and went, "Fine," before looking to the side, and saying, "My apologies."

"It's fine," Jaune waved it off with, biting his own tongue, and then looking inwards, _Summer?_

**_…_ **

_Summer._

**_…_ **

_…Dammit_ , he thought to himself. He wanted answers, but now she was just giving him the silent treatment.

Fine. Be that way.

"Look," Jaune said to Ren and Pyrrha, putting his hands up in surrender as he then said, "I don't know what's going on. I don't know who or what that fake-Ruby thing is, I don't know who these people are, and I don't know what's happened to Nora. All I know is that we need to get out of this forest, link up with Ozpin, and come back here with an army. With any luck, we'll be able to overwhelm these guys, find that thing that's possessing Nora, and-"

{RING RING}

They all blinked. Their scrolls were going off at the same time.

It must be Ozpin, telling them to hang tight, or that help was on the way!

However, as they all got out their scrolls, they saw that whoever it was that was calling their scrolls all at the exact same time wasn't Ozpin, or anyone from Beacon.

It was from an unknown caller.

Before any of them could do anything, their scrolls answered themselves.

_"This message is dedicated to not just every Huntsman and Huntress-to-be in the Emerald Forest, but to every resident of Vale, and beyond- Every potential recruit, every faithful, every sinner, and every soon-to-be beloved soul. Vale, Vacuo, Atlas, Mantle, Mistral, Menagerie. Human, Faunus. What silly distinctions you create for yourselves. What useless and meaningless differences that you carve out of this world, all for the sake of meaningless hatred and violence. But we do not care. We do not see the distinctions that you create for yourselves. You are all blessed souls, that we will soon be married together, in our holy union."_

"Who the hell is this?" Jaune asked.

* * *

_"I am Kasha, the Aspect of Serenity, Silver-Eyed Warrior, and leader of the Cult of Silver. One of many, but one of few. And, I am here to ask you a question."_

"Shut it off," General James Ironwood ordered sternly, his hands folded behind his back as to hide the worry that was in him.

The elderly Pietro Polendina looked up from his monitor, and, with a worried expression upon him, said, "I'm trying to, James, but this isn't some low level hack; Whoever is transmitting has accessed the entire CCT network, and is transmitting this message across every public channel!"

"How is that possible?" Winter Schnee asked from besides them, her arms now to the side as she then went, "The CCT network has the strongest cyber protection on Remnant! How were they able to hack into it so easily?"

This isn't hacking, this is accessing," Pietro corrected, "'Hacking' is for B-rated action movies. These people- This cult- Has just accessed the net to transmit their message."

"If that's the case, then this cult must have agents that work on the CCT," Ironwood mused, "I'll contact Ozpin. Let him know what's going on."

It had to be Salem. It had to be. Not even the White Fang would be able to pull off a cyberattack of this magnitude without significant help. He couldn't think of any other-

_"Who withstood the Grimm? Who created cities and kingdoms and culture and life amongst the blood and the fallen of our kind? Who carved themselves blades and swords and guns, so that they might carve themselves a world of their own? Who, against every single odd, survived?"_

-Huh? What was this person talking about?

_"We did! We survived! Mankind survived! We were the ones who struggled and bled against the Grimm and their masters and servants! We were the ones who sacrificed their mothers and fathers- Their brothers and sisters, their sons and daughters!- In Salem and Ozma's endless war!"_

The 3 of them froze.

It couldn't be...

They were transmitting the greatest, and most dangerous secret on Remnant, to the entire global population.

* * *

"So, there are others who know of me? Interesting..." Salem mused to herself as she glanced up from the scroll in her hands (Provided to her by Watts), And looked at the man in question, "Have you traced the signal yet, Watts?"

"Yes my lady. It's in the Emerald Forest, not too far from Beacon Academy," Watts replied, not looking up from the scrollpad in his hands as he then said, "Though, whoever this 'Cult of Silver' are, they're not putting any effort to hide where they are transmitting on. I suspect that it is a mobile transmitter, and they're not transmitting from their home base, which will make tracking them more difficult."

"Indeed," Salem said in agreement. Even for her and her Grimm, such a task of tracking someone across the entire planet was immensely difficult. Not impossible, but still difficult.

Still though, this pedantic speech that this cult was transmitting... It was amusing, at least.

_"And what of the gods? What of the Brother Gods and every other deity? Where were they when you prayed to them? Where were they when your families were being split open by the Grimm, mauled and killed like rats to the slaughter? Where were the gods when you begged for succour against the monsters of the world, both man and monster? Where were the gods when you prayed for them?"_

Salem blinked. Was this mortal doing what she thought they were doing?

_"Nowhere! The gods abandoned us! They left us to die and be clawed apart by the Grimm, shattering our moon like petty children, and leaving to spread their poisoned divinity and hellish stupidity to every other world in the cosmos! They are false gods, objects that are worth less than the dirt on our boots!"_

Indeed they were. They were speaking out against the Brother Gods, calling them out, and revealing them for what they were.

Interesting...

_"Well I, for one, am glad for it! I am glad that the false gods are gone! I am glad that the chains of false faith have been cut from me before they could drag me down into the abyss of worthless faith- Of gods that are undeserving of our worship! I could not be more grateful that the gods have left us! I would rather take my own death by tooth and claw, than live in servitude to the false gods!"_

"Watts," Salem began, "Contact Cinder, and tell her to find the leaders of this cult. The things that they say... They could be very useful allies indeed."

* * *

_"But who shall save us, you say. Who shall gift us from succour, and deliver us from the Grimm? I say, why do you pray for your salvation, when you do not yourselves seize it? Why do you not save yourselves, rather than wait for the gods to do it yourselves?"_

Cinder couldn't help but snarl at the transmission that was being played over every single communication device in her hideout. This snivelling voice was annoying. She wished to cull it as soon as possible.

These were the people. These were the people that had shot her down. These were the people who scarred her.

Cinder would have their heads on pikes.

* * *

_"Death to false gods! Death to broken kingdoms! The kingdoms have failed us! The kingdoms have failed to protect us! They never protected me whilst my family was hunted by cannibals and rapists in the wildlands of Remnant! They did not protect you when you were being persecuted for your ears or tails! They did not protect you when you were being mistreated for your gender! Death to Vale! Death to Atlas! Death to Mistral and death to Vacuo! They are disunified things- Remnants of the past- That must be sliced away, so that the new world may come forth!"_

Sienna Khan felt herself shiver at what was being said, though she could not tell if it was from agreement or concern.

The speech that this person was giving... It was powerful, but divisive. Yet, from the sheer passion that it was delivered with... It would turn many heads, that was to be sure.

Next to her, Ilia Amitola looked away from the screen before them, and asked, "High leader... What do we do with this?"

"...We must keep an eye on them, for now," Sienna simply said, "We have no information to go on, and it would be a political catastrophe if the White Fang was to associate itself with a cult."

She folded her hands behind her back, and looked out of the window nearby, towards the setting sun that christened Menagerie with a gentle orange and pink glow.

"But... If they dare to cross the White Fang, then we will crush them. Swiftly, and brutally."

* * *

_"We must become our own gods! We must be the ones to save ourselves from damnation! We must be the ones to bring down our enemies, and create our own heaven, not wait for the fake gods to build it for us!"_

On that, Adam could agree.

This human (He presumed it to be a human)… They spoke much truth. There was a lot in that speech that he could personally agree with.

But when the time came to upend humanity for the good of the Faunus, it would be by his blade. By the blade of the White Fang.

Not by the will of some petty cult.

* * *

_"Resurrect the dead gods of old! Resurrect the failed kings and queens and watch them all be reduced to less than beggars! Let them see the consequences of their greed- Of their pride and failures- And claw them apart for their sins! They have failed us, and now, we must shed ourselves of their failures, and build ourselves anew from their ashes!"_

Heh, Roman liked this kid. Spoke a lot of truth.

And noble bashing? Hell, it was one of his favourite pastimes!

Besides committing crime, of course.

"Neo," he began, the girl in question shattering the world around her as she appeared right besides his seat, "I want you to keep an eye on these guys. With Flame-Bitch around, we're probably going to need to kill a few of their guys, but hey, they can always replace them. And with them around, we might be able to use them as leverage against our generous benefactor, though don't ask me how, yet."

He leaned back into his seat, and dragged out another puff of smoke from his cigar.

"And hey, who knows? Maybe they'll have need of a master thief and his lovely assistant in the near future."

* * *

_"And yet, I can still hear the whispers of weakness all around me. I can still hear the callings of dead faiths from fat old men, living up in their glass towers, from the corporate whores of Atlas and their dogs, to the stone walls of Hunter-weakness in Beacon."_

Saphron looked to Terra, their little baby Adrian in their hands, cooing and giggling away at the strange loud voice on the TV.

"It's started", Saphron began simply.

Terra smiled, "Let's hope that they don't fail us all."

* * *

_"Yes, even from this far away, I can still hear your doubts and fears, Ozpin. Many have dubbed you wise and sage-like, but I dub thee as stupid. You cling to false gods and worthless beliefs, like they haven't failed you before!"_

The Huntsmen and Huntresses of Beacon stopped piling into the Bullheads by the dozens, and, in shock, looked towards Ozpin and Glynda, as they stood together, dumbfounded by what this hacker was truly saying.

_"And to those that are foolish enough to follow him, I ask you to do one thing that you have surely never done before. I ask you to think. Has he truly offered a solution to combatting Salem? Has he truly offered you a way to bring down the Grimm, and achieve peace over-"_

The scroll was crushed in Ozpin's hand. With a calm, yet firm glare, he looked towards everyone else, and ordered, "Keep moving into the Bullheads.

And yet, the voice in the speakers around them did not stop.

_"If you say 'Not yet' or 'Soon, very soon', then truly, your patience is a virtue that we must all strive for. But mankind has had enough of waiting! Mankind has had enough of living on empty words and false promises, of being tortured and mutilated by the monsters at our doors!"_

"Shut that off, Glynda."

"Ozpin, I don't think we-"

"We have to, Glynda", he caught her off with, "For the sake of the children in our care, we have to, or they will be torn apart by themselves."

* * *

_"We must be better. We must be strong. We must be our own gods, our own saviours, our own salvation!"_

"What is this idiot talking about?!" Weiss called out as she, Yang, and Blake ran from the monsters- The Husk Grimm- That were at their heels, blasts and bombs sounding off all around them as they flew and vaulted and sprinted through the trees and woods.

"I don't know!" Yang called out as they threw themselves into an open field in the middle of the forest around them, "Let's just get out of here, and-"

One of the troop carriers flew overhead, and 2 figures jumped out, creating a slide of ice underneath them, sliding downwards, before gracefully landing on the ground, their moves symmetrical to each other, almost identical, as, with a royal like grace to them, they began their march towards them.

They were twins. Identical twins, at that, with the both of them dressed in winter clothing, and with feather quills and flowers in their hair, their breath turning visible like smoke around them. One, with short hair and black and red feathers in her hair, was dressed in a red and black coat with what looked like newspaper clippings printed onto it, whilst the other was dressed in white and blue, with long black hair and a blue flower pin to the side of her head.

"Oh my god," Yang groaned in annoyance to herself. She knew these two quite well.

She had kicked their asses before.

"Well hello there, Yang Xiao Long," cooly said Miltia Malachite.

Melanie Malachite smiled sadistically, "What a pleasure it is to see you again."

* * *

_"So join us, my friends. Join us in ushering in a new age, less you be left aside as we tear down the old one."_

Jaune, Pyrrha, and Ren looked to each other.

What was this? What the hell was all of this?

_"The time of the kingdoms is done."_

The ground began to rumble.

_"The time of the Grimm has come to pass."_

The trees began to part.

_"Now is the Age of Silver!"_

Red tendrils began to rip apart the trees, rocks, and world around them in a flurry of crimson, an emotionless void threatening to swallow them whole, grasping onto them, and never letting go.

_"Now is the Age of Man!"_

Their eyes widened with fear, and they began to run once more, fearful for their lives as the enemy continued to close in on them.

_"For we are the Cult of Silver-"_

The fake-Ruby looked over them, emotionless, yet filled with every emotion possible.

It would not lose its prey.

Not again.

Never again.

_"-And it is our time to rise!"_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is coming out in a few days and that's when I'm going to changing this to an M rating. You'll understand when you see it.
> 
> By the way...
> 
> 3000 WORD ESSAY COMPLETED AND SUBMITTED!
> 
> IT TOOK ME A DAMNED WEEK TO FINISH!
> 
> PRAISE ME!
> 
> YEAH!
> 
> Anyways, celebration out of the way, remember to follow, favourite, leave a review, and with all of that said and done, stay safe (At least until you all get the vaccine, in which case, afterwards, go nuts!), And I shall see you all next time.
> 
> Titanmaster117 out!


	7. Beacon interlude: Recruitment Efforts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Before the Invasion of the Emerald Forest, the Cult of Silver goes out of its way to recruit some new followers...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content of a sexual nature incoming. No lemons, but still, just a head's up.

**Main theme:** _[Death Hymn by Lucas King](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmTN8wu2AM8)  
_**Arc theme:** _[Rise from the Destiny 2 soundtrack](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=intmEEVphig)_  
**Theme:** _[Unveiled ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NRVCUWtz9w)_[_from the Destiny 2: Beyond Light soundtrack_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NRVCUWtz9w)

* * *

_Miltia Malachite didn't know what to expect when she had been woken in the middle of the night by some strange woman that neither she nor her sister had never seen before._

_They had had a bad week. Firstly, that blonde bimbo had charged into their bar and started a fight for no reason, wrecking the entire bar and forcing them to close up all week, which was an absolute pain, since they had to actually help with that crap, and not just leave it to their goons. Then, they had to deal with that annoying prick Roman and his midget assistance, which was a pain in of itself. And then they had to deal with smaller gangs trying to take advantage of the hit against them and muscle their way into their territory, and then-_

_It had just been a deluge of shit after deluge of shit, and so they were just hoping for a quiet, nice sleep for the night._

_Of course, considering their luck, that didn't happen._

_Hooray._

_They were sleeping soundly in their bedroom, as quiet as can be, when at the same time, the 2 of them had been woken up by something entering the room and standing in between their beds._

_Silver eyes glistened in the night, almost glowing in the darkness, staring at the both of them. The same silver eyes, in the darkness, were connected to an exceptionally beautiful woman, with black to red hair and a deep black and red cloak._

_Gods, she was beautiful._

_Wait, why were they focusing on that?_

_The 2 of them went to get up in alarm, brandishing whatever weapons that they could find at the sudden intruder into their room- Did those idiot bouncers completely miss this lady, seriously? It was with that blonde haired whore all over again- When suddenly-_

_Pain._

_Nothing but pain._

_Miltia and her sister screamed as they fell out of their beds and clutched their heads, blood dripping from their eyes and ears and noses as they cried out in pain, weeping red tears from their eyes as flashes of light and sound and horrible things invaded their minds, ripping them asunder and rebuilding them anew, ripping them asunder and building them anew, ripping them asunder and building them anew, ripping them asunder and building them anew._

_Pain became the only thing that existed. Not just physical pain- As mental nerves and wiring were flayed and broken and rebuilt only to be flayed and broken all over again inside their bodies without even breaching the skin at all, looking like wriggling worms and maggots and insects swarming and undulating underneath their flesh- But their minds were undulating and mutating and mutilating themselves, tearing its own flesh and bone into bloody ribbons and sections, like a surgeon was cutting apart their very souls into different parts and sections and-_

_Dear fucking god why was nobody trying to fucking save them?!_

_They screamed and screamed and screamed until their throats went dry and their voices went hoarse and all that they could feel was-_

_Pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain_

_Pain_

_Pain_

_Pain_

_Pain_

_Pain_

_Pain_

_Pain_

_Pain_

_Pain_

_Pain_

_Pain_

_Pain_

_Pain_

_Pain_

_Pain_

_Love_

_The pain- The horrible, unending pain that was tearing them into bloody swaths of both the mind and the body- Ended, and it was replaced by one thing:_

_Love_

_Love_

_Love_

_Love_

_Love_

_Love_

_Love_

_Love_

_Love_

_Love_

_Love_

_Love_

_Love_

_Love_

_Love_

_Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love love_

_So much unending love._

_The pain was replaced with pleasure. Not a sexual pleasure, for such a thing did not do even a single shred of justice to the greatness that they were feeling. Miltia let out a drunken giggle as a crazed smile crossed her face, her breathing laboured and forced as fresh tears of water and blood mixed in her eyes. Gods, it was a beautiful sight._

_She had been such a silly girl. That pain that she had just gone through? It was a test. A trial of her worthiness to her new god. She had been so unfaithful before, so dirty and full of sin. It was almost like she had been lacking a soul in the first place, filled with nothing but horrid filth that took the shape of a Grimm within the pit of her own stomach._

_Now? Now, she understood clearly. Now she knew what she had done, and what she had to do, and she was ready to do it, no matter the cost._

_Gods, where had this knowledge been before? Where was this wonderful wisdom in her life? Was her life truly that worthless before her true god had arrived to save her? It must be, for nothing had been this fulfilling before. Nothing had ever felt this good, this whole, this maddeningly worthwhile!_

_It was only now that she realised the horrible worthlessness of herself and her sister. Without their gods, they had been nothing but useless bags of flesh and bone, wandering down the road of life without any sense of hope or belonging, their minds driven without faith, and their souls polluted with sin._

_But that was okay, because god forgave them. God was real. God- Goddess. Their goddess. Her goddess- Was standing right before them._

_To hell with the Brother Gods. To hell with the Four Maidens. To hell with the God of Animals, the Sun and the Moon, the Girl in the Tower, the Indecisive King, and whatever false idol was plaguing the minds and souls of those on Remnant! Miltia was staring into the face of her true god. A god that loved her, that adored her, that would accept her for anything and everything that she did, and as such, a god that Miltia would devote herself towards. A god that she would give her mind and soul to, that she would shed her skin and break her bone and peel her flesh open so that she might accept her object of worship into her heart._

_And her goddess wore silver eyes._

_Miltia looked to the side, and saw Melanie balancing herself on her bed, breathing heavily as a droopy smile graced her lips. Her mind had finished malting itself of its sinful layer, and had accepted her new gods of worship as well. Her underside was drenched. Strange, as Miltia did not feel such sexual pleasure at the worship of her gods._

_But that was a question for another time. Behind the both of them, Miltia could hear footsteps enter through the door, and she and her sister looked behind themselves to see 3 more figures enter the room._

_One of them was a girl with equally beautiful silver eyes, with long white hair, pale snow white skin, and plump lips that Miltia wanted to kiss so badly, dressed in a long black, white, and golden dress, with black sleeves that ended in white cuffs, golden patterns covering her, a rose necklace, and a pendant in the shape of a wolf's head in her hair._

_Another girl wore barely anything, allowing her bare muscular tanned skin to be revealed and revered by the world-_

_Miltia could see Melanie's mouth watering at the sight of their almost nude goddess. Of course she would. Even though she was straight, the sight of her goddess in front of her was enough to make her knees quiver, but of reverence more than lust. Of course, as sexually active with boys as Melanie was, Miltia always suspected her sister to like women as much as she liked men behind the curtains, but now this was just confirmation of that._

_-With brown coloured hair that was tied into a ponytail, and dressed in just a black cloak covering her shoulders, knee high black boots, a pair of ripped jean shorts that barely extended past her inner thighs, and a dark yellow bra. The woman just screamed sex appeal._

_However, around her hand and wrist was a chain, and connected to it via a metal collar was a boy with extremely pale skin, about 12 or so years old, dressed in a pair of work trousers and a blue buttoned shirt with a collar, but in nothing else, save for the metal talons on his fingers. The boy was on all 4s with bare feet, and his clothes were ragged and torn. But what struck out the most was his unnaturally wide eyes, and his incredibly long smiling mouth that stretched almost all the way up to his ears, filled with rows of jagged and sharp teeth._

_All of them had the blessed silver eyes, and all of them were covered in blood._

_Miltia did not like the sight of them covered in blood. It was heretic's blood, and it was soiling her gods. She wished so badly to lick it off of them until they were clean, letting herself bear the burden of the filth and sin that others may soil them with, whilst her gods stay pure and clean._

_From the looks of it, Melanie found it exciting, as a clear liquid trailed down her legs._

_Behind them, the beautiful woman with black and red hair tilted her head to the side, and the 2 sisters quickly got to their knees and bowed their heads against the ground, the both of them filled with reverence and worship for their new gods._

_"Oh, my goddess! Please forgive our worthlessness!" Miltia exclaimed as her eyes filled once more with fresh tears, this time of joy as she realised how far she had fallen in love with her gods, "You gave us pain for our unforgiveable sins, and yet you gave us love and forgave our sinful lives!"_

_"We are unworthy of your love, my goddess!" Melanie cried out in drowning ecstasy, "We are unworthy of being in your presence, and yet you bless us with this gift of seeing your heavenly selves! Your love is so pure and infinite, and ours for you is a never-ending well that shall never run dry! You gave us pain, and it was a good pain! You hurt our minds, and it was a good hurt! We will devote ourselves to you, we shall love you, and we shall be in love with you!"_

_"Please, my goddess and gods, we love you so much! Oh gods, we are so madly in love with you!" Miltia went, "We would do anything for you! We will serve you and service you! We will bare your children! We will provide our bare skin and bodies for you! We will worship your perfect bodies, and make love you as much as you want! Us unworthy sinners cannot give you as much pleasure as you give us by merely allowing us in your presence, but we would devote ourselves to you! We will worship every part of you! So please, allow us to love you! Allow us to show all of the love that we feel for you!"_

_**"..."** _

_Their goddess said nothing._

_Miltia felt her heart rip in 2 at the sound of her goddess' silence. Had they been rejected? Did the object of their devotion hate them? Despise them? Of course she did? She and her sister were filthy. Filled with sin and muck. No being as divine as them would want anything to do with creatures like themselves, mere things that were less than human._

_But then, a voice called out behind them, and said, "Rise."_

_The 2 sisters looked behind them, to see the girl with white hair and in the black dress beckoning them onto their feet._

_They did, and the white haired girl told them, "Raise your arms."_

_They did without question, and she took them into her hands- Her goddess was cleansing her filthy skin, Miltia and Melanie could only gasp and shudder at the touch- And blessed them with a soothing smile._

_"Welcome to the Cult of Silver."_

_She let go of their hands, and before they could collapse with unrestrained joy, Miltia's hands began to tingle. She looked down at them, and-_

_There was ice, forming across her skin. Shards of cold silver crystal forming as her breath became cold and she began to breathe out icy smoke._

_She willed it to go away, and it did._

_She willed it to form over her hands again, and it did._

_She looked to her sister, and realised that she had also been blessed with the same gift._

_A semblance._

_Her gods had blessed them with a semblance._

_The 2 of them collapsed to their knees and bowed, "Oh thank you, my goddess! Thank you for this blessed gift! We will devote ourselves to you, in anything and everything that you say, as it is the only way that we can ever thank you!"_

_Miltia raised her head in fealty, and the fresh cold that came over her ticked her and made the love that she felt for her gods raise so much more._

_"May we... May we be selfish, and ask for the names of our gods?"_

_"Of course, my beloved thrall", the white haired god said, and oh was her voice so enchanting, as she placed a hand on herself and answered, "I am Baobhan Sith, the Aspect of Inspiration", she pointed to the girl next to her, "This is Draugr, the Aspect of Interest", she gestured to the feral boy, "Upyr, the Aspect of Joy", and then finally to the beautiful woman that silently blessed them with her presence, "And that is Alter, the Aspect of Emotion."_

_"Need... Blood...", their young god, 'Upyr', rasped out quietly, in a shrill voice that reminded Miltia so much of a child that she once longed to have, "Still... Hungry... Need... More..."_

_"Of course, my young brother", 'Baobhan Sith' said, before looking to Melanie, and going, "My youngest brother always needs blood. His semblance and usage of his silver eyes constantly burns it out, no small thanks to the blood disease that plagues him. If you would be so kind..."_

_"Of course, my goddess!" Melanie quickly shot out with, as she grabbed a sharp object from the side- The stray blade from one of Miltia's claws- And then-_

_{STAB}_

_-Stabbed it into her outer thigh. Like a chef shaving off kebab meat at a takeaway, she pulled the blade down her leg, slicing off a long peel of flesh from her leg like it was greasy meat from a doner kebab. Blood poured like a waterfall as she finally sliced it off, leaving a thick red trail across the outside of her naked thigh, her leg drowning in blood as their young god was finally released from his chain-_

_"Fresh blood!"_

_-And clamped his mouth around the bloody wound, suckling from it like a baby to their mother's breast, drinking away at the red ambrosia as a twisted expression of both pleasure and pain invaded Melanie's face._

_"The process get's easier every time", Miltia heard their goddess, Baobhan Sith, say to herself, "Well, then again, these 2's aura is practically non-existent, so it's not really a step-up in terms of efficiency", a sigh, "Oh well. It'll just take a lot longer to work for the more esteemed aura users."_

_Miltia looked to her white haired goddess in a panic, "My goddess, have I- Have we done something to offend you?"_

_"Not at all, my thrall. In fact", she stepped to the side, allowing Miltia to look upon her other goddess, Draugr, as she herself looked upon Miltia with a distant stare, triggering such strong maternal instincts within Miltia that she didn't know she had. Her goddess looked so vulnerable, so innocent, so in need of a mother, "Why don't we leave now, and go home? We have a big day in a few hours, and I know that Draugr is just so in need of a good mother."_

_That confirmed it. That was what Miltia's god given purpose would be. She would be the mother to her gods. She would be their mother, carry their children, care for them as if they were her own. With a newfound joy welling inside of her at her task, she joyously replied, "Of course, my beloved goddess", and followed behind them, as their young god Upyr detached himself from Melanie's leg-_

_"Enough blood... Happy... Full... Satisfied..."_

_-Much to the disappointment of Melanie, who was obviously taking a perverse sort of sexual pleasure out of the blinding hot pain._

_It was then that Miltia finally noticed the physical changes that their gods had blessed them with._

_The remoulding of their skin and bodies from earlier... They were not just taking them apart and putting them back together again. They were improving them, and blessing their unworthy selves with new bodies!_

_Both Melanie and Miltia had grown an inch or 2 taller, and their more feminine attributes were more pronounced as well, with more slender waists, wider hips, and breasts that had developed from C-cup to D-cup. But more than that, their gods had blessed them with much more muscular builds. The 2 of them were essentially ripped, with a six pack of abs across their stomachs, thicker arms that were lined with muscles, denser skin, broader shoulders, more powerful thighs, and without any trace of fat on them. Their gods had blessed them with bodies that oozed power, and yet did not sacrifice any of their femininity. In fact, they had only increased it._

_They were stronger, more powerful, more beautiful, and they fell in love more with their divine objects of worship for it._

_As they trailed after their new gods-_

_If Melanie felt any pain that she did not feel pleasure from as they walked, her aura slowly sealing up the wound as blood continued to dry on her leg, she did not say._

_-Breathing in their air from behind them, and dreaming about the things to come with such open and eager loving hearts, they came through into the main dancefloor of Junior's nightclub (Not at all concerned that they were in just their sleeping bra and underwear), To see-_

_Oh, they were all dead._

_Junior was the only one left alive as he was being held down by 2 other members of the Cult of Silver, these being men dressed in silver armour and covered in silver and blue robes. Across the nightclub's interior, dozens of other bouncers laid slain, their bodies ripped apart and mutilated in the worst ways imaginable. Some of them had been torn in half, their entrails covering the floor and oozing torrents of filthy blood onto the still humming disco floor. Others were missing their heads, either cut off or smashed into pieces, splattering blood and gore all over the walls. Some had had their eyeballs plucked out, and had been forced to eat them. Everyone else had been stabbed, shot, impaled, eviscerated, mutilated, torn apart, tortured, or with holes in their chests. A few had been frozen solid, some of them standing still like statues, other had been shattered into pieces, like discarded rock, the ice melting off of them, and softening the wet bloody flesh and bone._

_All the while, other cloaked members of the Cult of Silver, dressed in armour and blue and silver cloaks, and wielded spiked pikes and rifles and cannons and cutlasses and pistols and ice covered fists looked over the nightclub and stood guard, all of them most likely pleased with their slaughter._

_Junior screamed something at both Miltia and Melanie, but neither of them were paying attention as they looked around the red soaked nightclub, and took in the bloody slaughter._

_They smiled._

_It was beautiful._

_"Oh! Before we leave", their goddess, Baobhan Sith, turned around and looked at the 2 of them, tilting her head to the side as she smiled pleasantly, and said, "I'm afraid that our mutual friend, Hei Xiong here, is being rather uncooperative with us-"_

_Sinner, both the Malachite twins thought of their former employer, Heretic. Heresy of a sinner._

_"-So, if you could please get him to cooperate with us, you would be doing your gods such a noble thing."_

_The 2 of them smiled, ""Yes, goddess"", they said in unison, before turning their gazes to their former boss, Junior, as the 2 other cultists released him from their grasp, and allowed the twins to step closer to him._

_They narrowed their eyes at the filth before them, who would dare challenge their gods, and got to work._

_They tortured him._

_They tortured him relentlessly._

_On and on they would chant-_

_"Sinner sinner sinner sinner sinner sinner sinner sinner sinner sinner sinner sinner sinner sinner sinner sinner sinner"_

_-As they ripped him apart and pulled his nails off and removed his teeth until finally, he agreed to profess his sins, and deal with the Cult._

_And once he did, they tortured him more._

_They tortured him- Beat him, cut him, slice him, bled him- Until he was at an inch of his life, and then they allowed him to live._

_They looked at each other, covered in the blood of a sinner, smiled madly, and then kissed._

_It was beautiful._

* * *

Miltia and Melanie craned their necks to the side as they eyed their prey.

Yang Xiao Long.

Weiss Schnee.

Blake Belladonna.

Around them, their fellow cultists had gathered, armed to the teeth, and preparing to fire.

With a wave of her hand, Miltia told them to stand down.

They would handle this.

Behind their prey, their Husk Grimm nodded, and they moved off to the side. The soldiers around them- Their brothers and sisters in faith, did the same, and either stood to watch and join in, or went to busy themselves with other tasks.

Miltia simply craned her neck to the side, and went, "Shall we, sister?"

Frost and ice covered their arms.

"We shall indeed."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the future, I'm probably not going to be doing any actual lemons (Probably... I don't know, maybe as an experiment down the line, I don't know) But there will be implied sexual content, at least.


	8. Beacon part 6: A View on 4 Fronts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Across Vale, multiple parties give witness to the Cult's declaration

**Main theme:** _[Death Hymn by Lucas King](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmTN8wu2AM8)  
_ **Arc theme:** _[Rise from the Destiny 2 soundtrack](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=intmEEVphig)_  
 **Theme:** _[Second Thoughts](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwRdrqyThhg)_[ _from the Destiny 2: Beyond Light soundtrack_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwRdrqyThhg)

* * *

Her eyes were on the screen, as were the eyes of so many others. The screens in the electronics shop display were all showing the same image: Once blackened, filtering only noise, they were now showing a direct view of the Emerald Forest.

An Emerald Forest that was both burning and freezing under the constant strain of battle.

Her ears twitched, but she kept them hidden underneath her green cloak. Her neck craned to the side as an old woman walked up next to her, poked her on the shoulder, and rudely went, "Do you mind moving?"

She raised an eyebrow underneath her cloak, but then rolled her eyes, and allowed the diminutive woman to pass her, before readjusting the bow and arrow that she kept slung over her shoulder, and began to walk away. The people around her took her for a Huntress, thanks to her attire, and thankfully kept their distance from her.

"Fucking Faunus," she heard the old woman mutter, but did not pay her any mind. Humans have always acted like that. This was no different than before. An unfortunate truth, but the truth.

Walking out of the shop and onto the street, the violet crystal on her person hummed in her pocket, and she willed it into her hands with a flash of purple light. Once again, people thought her a Huntress, assuming her to be using her semblance, and paid her little mind.

It's amazing, isn't it, how, with enough time, even the magical and the other worldly can become mundane? At least she didn't have to hide her abilities when so many others in the same city could do so much more than just will a crystal into her hand.

Well, not truly in the same city as her. Everyone else was loading up, hurrying off to the Emerald Forest, to try and save their young. Already overhead, there were dozens of flying ships, filled to the brim with Hunters and warriors from most likely every Huntsman Guild this side of Vale, ready to bring forth their own definitions of battle. She suspected that everyone around her thought that she was going to do the same.

Unfortunately, no. She had other things that she had to do.

A face appeared on the crystal- Another woman- And she said, _"Kaylin, good to see you. How are things in the city?"_

Kaylin, Lost to None, nodded her head, and said, "Good to see you too, sister," she looked around herself, before continuing, "Things are not going well. Panic is beginning to set in with the populace, and the words of this cult are not helping," her gaze turned to a group of people nearby, crowding themselves around their scrolls, watching and listening intently to the feed on their scroll as she then continued, "Avin, the speech that they are giving... It is a mad rambling, to be sure, and without any evidence to back it up, so I do not believe that many will immediately wish to join the ranks of this cult, save for the desperate and the delusional, but... The sheer passion of the words being said, combined with their claims, and their attack on the Emerald Forest... People are going to start panicking, and they're going to start thinking... Thinking about a lot of bad things."

 _"And that will bring the Grimm,"_ Avin, Born of Light, finished for her, ruffling her own white hair as she groaned, and went, _"This is going to be problematic for the humans..."_

Kaylin bit her lip, and then said, "Avin-"

_"Don't."_

"Avin…"

_"Kaylin, we've had this conversation hundreds of times before. You know my answer."_

Avin, we have the means to help these people. We have the domain!" she hissed quietly, "We can-"

 _"No, Kaylin!"_ Avin hissed in turn, _"We stay hidden, we stay safe. That's the code that we live by. Understood?"_

"...Fine."

_"...Look, just- Just get back here, okay? We'll talk later... I love you, Kaylin."_

Avin just smiled under her hood, "I love you too," and with that, the crystal disintegrated in her hand.

Back in the old days, she would've taken to hiding from all of the eyes around her to use her abilities. Back in the day, if she had done so in the middle of a crowd, people would've panicked, become scared and frightened, and inadvertently bring the Grimm in by their fear alone.

But, as said, nowadays people took her for a Huntress, and paid her no mind.

As such, when she was teleported out of the city in a flash of purple light, no one batted an eye.

And if anyone noticed the elongated ears under her hood, they didn't say.

* * *

_"I know what you are thinking. You think me mad. You think all of us mad. You hear our claims of Ozma and Salem and Queens of the Grimm and how I rant on about them without proof or evidence, to which I say: Well done. It is good that you do not believe everything that you hear, less you be herded easily like sheep. I would be disappointed if it was otherwise."_

It tilted its head. This human (He was unable to tell wherever it was a boy or a girl) Was... Intriguing, to say the least.

"And, of course, you are correct. About those, we do not yet have the evidence needed to back up those claims. But, please, for our sake, be patient. We will bring you this much needed enlightenment soon. We will soon lift the veil of ignorance from your eyes. But, for now, we have other truths to spare."

Oh? They had information to back up other claims that they had made? Why not just lead with that instead?

_"Because, that is what this is all about: Lifting the veil from over your eyes. Allowing you to walk out of the cave of ignorance, and into enlightenment. Bring you out into the new world, and let humanity begin anew. To turn back the clock, if you will. To allow you to step into la fontaine de jouvence, and come out renewed."_

Ah, they were peppering their speech with old Valerian, now? That was good, on a psychological level. It showed that they were schooled, and intelligent, if they were able to implement secondary languages smoothly into their speech. It also helped to amplify their charisma levels, and to catch the attention of those whom still used that same language.

_"Because, truly, when was the last time that you questioned everything around you? When was the last time you looked towards the people in charge- The people you are supposed to trust, the people that you are supposed to have faith in, to lead you, to believe in you- And thought to yourselves, 'Are they truly doing the right thing? Are they truly looking out for me, or for themselves?'"_

Hm, let's see what they have to say.

_"The truth is, they are not. The truth is, that they are only in it for themselves? The men and women in power, whom you believe to be loyal to the people? They are fatuous and corrupt. Don't believe me? Take a look at this."_

Suddenly, a video attachment appeared on the screen. Without pressing a button, the file opened up, and a video camera perspective appeared, from a hidden camera nested between what looked like 2 books on a tall shelf, out of sight, and out of mind.

In the video screen, several men and women appeared, and- Oh, he recognised them. They were members of the Mistralian council. This must be their meeting room.

In the middle of the room, with everyone's attention turned to her, was the gangster and mob boss known in the underworld as Lil' Miss Malachite, smoking on a cigarette, with her 2 guards eyeing everyone else in the room, like they were about to pounce and rip their throats out.

 _"We had a deal, Malachite,"_ began one of the council members, their faces in clear view as they incriminated themselves, _"You got-"_

 _"You want to take that tone with me again, boy?"_ Malachite growled, tapping her cigarette onto the ash tray on the table before her as her 2 goons growled in turn, _"Don't forget, I put you in that seat, councilmen,"_ she spat out the last word mockingly, _"I can sure as hell take you out."_

 _"I don't care,"_ the councilman hissed, a fist clenched against the round table before him as he then went, _"You promised us that you'd leave the upper echelons of Mistral alone, and yet we're still seeing raids on our investors homes! You said that you would call them off once we gave you our support!"_

Malachite just laughed at them, _"You think that I can control the entirety of the underworld, just like that! I promised that I would keep my men from you and your little helpers. I never said anything about the other gangs in Mistral,"_ she leaned back into her chair, smiling, _"More to the point though, why should I care?"_

 _"You bitch,"_ one of the councilwomen muttered, before telling her, _"The reason that you should care is because we're the ones funding your operations! We've given you the money for your slave pens for those animals! We've given you the manpower for your pet projects! We've even kept the police off of you! What more do you want from us?!"_

 _"Everything,"_ was her blunt answer, _"I want everything in the world. Ain't that about as much as a girl can want?"_

 _"You won't get anything if you can't keep your end of the bargain,"_ said another councilman, putting his hands together calmly as he then said, _"If you can't guarantee us our protection, then we shall simply cut off your funds for-"_

 _"Do that, Councilman Regan, and I'll send the evidence of your little spa days to both your wife, and your mistresses,"_ Malachite retorted, before leaning back into her seat once more, and adding, _"Before I have them brought before me and personally slit their throats, of course. Understand?"_

The man in question, Councilman Regan, was sufficiently cowed, and moved his hands from the table and to his side, looking down at his lap as Malachite smiled at him. It was all teeth.

 _"Good boy,"_ she went, before going to the rest of them, _"And as for everyone else, let me remind you that if you stop sending me and my associates the Lien that we need, we cut you all loose,"_ behind them, the 2 guards that she had pulled machetes from their backs, and waved them in their hands, _"In the most literal sense, of course. But, then again, I don't need to kill you all to ruin you, do I?"_ she laughed, "Now then, are we all in agreement?"

There was a short silence, before one of the councillors quietly said, "Yes, Miss Malachite," and the others reluctantly nodded as well, some of them scowling, while others just looked frightful at their situation.

 _"Good. I'm glad that you all understand,"_ Malachite said as she then rose to her seat and moved to leave the room, but not before turning around and looking to the one called Regan and going, _"You know, I figured you'd be happy with my operations, Reggy,"_ there was a mocking tone to her voice, _"The more Faunus fall into my pens, the more that the free Faunus will flood to your administration. The great man of equality, Malcom Regan, providing sanctuary for all, human and Faunus alike. That's your promotional slogan, isn't it?"_

_"Does it look like I actually give a flying fuck about those animals?"_

_"Atta boy..."_

And then, the video ended, and several more links were attached to the screen. Links to bank invoices, account transactions, charts and graphs of Faunus population percentages in the main cities of Mistral (All of them going downwards), Including Wind Path, Argus, Kuchinashi, and Mistral itself, and so on. These people had done their homework.

The voice from before continued onwards, _"Go ahead. We invite you to scrub the video, and the documents provided, for editing. Try and see if they are falsified. I guarantee that you will be disappointed in your search to disprove us. The council of Mistral are firmly in the pockets of the Spider crime syndicate and their leader, Lil' Miss Malachite, and are actively funding and supporting the depopulation and enslavement of the Faunus population of Mistral. One can learn this by simply looking outside of the window, provided that you live in Mistral, of course. The graphs provided- Documented and peer reviewed by credited workers, scientists, and sociologists working in the Mistralian government- Show a steady depression in the natural Faunus population of the kingdom, credited to the rise of Faunus profit slavery by crime syndicates such as the Spiders, as well as racial attacks, beatings, and murders by the hands of human lynch mobs and racist parties, with most of them led by older men and women, whom lived through either the Great War, the Faunus Rights Revolution, or both, and with some of them even being supported by government officials themselves. This can be proven by the bank details and invoices provided, detailing the money trails left behind by government transactions and money transferences from multiple proxy and offshore bank accounts, towards the Spiders and different groups bent on Faunus extermination and extirpation, such as the Human Liberation Front, the Peace Brigade, and so forth. If this is the level of corruption and villainy on the part of the Mistralian council, then what of Vale, or Vacuo, or even Atlas? Especially Atlas? If Mistral is corrupt, then what of the other kingdoms?"_

He leaned back into his chair. Oh, this was getting good.

_"But that is not all, my friends. That is not all that the kingdoms have lied to you about. Tell me: Has anyone ever bothered to check the dust that you use?"_

Another link was attached to the screen, and then opened itself, revealing another hidden camera in another cabinet, overlooking a room with walls made out of bookshelves, a wooden-brown floor with a blue carpet draped over it, a pair of sofas between a glass table, and at the far end of the room-

_"How can we be running out of dust!?"_

-Was an oak desk underneath a blue chandelier, with a painting of a younger man placed on the wall, in stark contrast to the stressed man that was sitting at the desk, slamming his fist against the desk as he yelled at the SDC accountant before him.

 _"I- The- The dust mines are running out of safe veins to harvest!"_ the account stuttered out to the ever belligerent Jacques Schnee, _"There aren't anymore safe places in our territories where we can find new dust deposits, and we're loosing more of our scouts and rangers to the Grimm just to find new deposits! W-We only have a few hundred or more so dust deposits left! Everywhere else is too dangerous to explore and mine without being overrun by the Grimm!"_

 _"Dammit!"_ Jacques slammed his hand against his desk once more, and then got out, _"When can we be expecting shortages?"_

_"W-Within the next lifetime or so, sir, b-but if we- If we start rationing soon, then we can stretch it out for another 2 decades."_

_"What about our synthetic dust experiments?"_

_"All of them are failing, sir. None of the experiments have the same properties as natural dust. T-They're all just useless rocks."_

_"Dammit..."_ Jacques growled out, swivelling around in his chair to face the painting of himself on the wall, _"Our shareholders are going to throw a fit at this..."_

_"Our sharehol- Sir, everything runs on dust! Our entire lives revolve around it, and there isn't enough research done on alternative methods yet! Our shareholders aren't-_

_"Start diluting our dust supplies."_

The accountant recoiled, _"W-What?"_

Jacques turned back to her, _"You heard me. Start producing and adding the dead synthetic dust to our supplies. If we do that, then we can stretch out our supply for years to come, and allow us to up our profits. It will also allow me to implement new worker restrictions and cuts if the council sees that our quota has increased, saving us a fortune in the meantime"_

_"S-Sir, if we do that, then everything'll run on less power! We use dust for energy, and if we do that, then we'll just burn through more dust!"_

_"And the more dust that they use, the more dust that they will purchase from us."_

_"S-Sir-"_

_"See that it is done. Now."_

The accountant quailed, but then nodded hesitantly, and just said, _"R-Right away, sir..."_

And then, the video ended.

_"Jacques Schnee, and the Schnee Dust Company at large, the biggest conglomerate of dust trade and manufacturing on the planet, is exploiting the rising dust shortage in order to boost their profits, and further exploit their workers by presenting their rising 'findings' of dust, through diluting the current supply, to implement further labour cuts to their workers, and thereby keeping more money in their pockets in the meantime. The finding and links provided to you- Detailing the current dust exports, mine quotas, worker and overseer reports, account details, and so on- Shall be that which supports this claim, and makes it the truth."_

Flowery language indeed.

He couldn't help but chuckle.

Nearby, his partners in crime looked at his sudden outburst, no matter how subtle it is, and they gave him such a queer look.

"What is it?" one of them asked with an impatient twitch to him. His veneer of arrogance never left him as he repositioned the silver diadem in his head. Next to him, his fair-skinned sister with the matching silver diadem on her head, her long dress looking like running water as she tilted her head to the side, and went to temper him.

Xaphan, the Will of Flugel, waved both Jax and Gillian Asturias off, and moved towards the window, to look over the city below.

**"This... Changes nothing. Our plan will still go ahead-"**

The skyline of Vale certainly was beautiful.

**"-And Vale will bow before the Crown."**

He couldn't wait to burn it all down.

* * *

_"How far does the corruption seep in our lives? How far does the sick and the weak-in-character go to live and prosper, while the strong and the fair are left to suffer and wilt away, like flowers in the winter? Every institution is filtered with this madness. Every aspect of life is broken and riddled with corruption. The systems are flawed. The systems are rotten to the core. Any attempt at reformation is shot down by those too afraid to lose their power. From the schools that pollute the minds of their children with propaganda and kingdom-loving lies, to the military academies of Atlas that fill their soldiers with toxic patriotism, to even the Huntsmen themselves."_

"Move faster, Glynda," Ozpin vexingly ordered, taking intense umbrage with what was being said in this person's (He couldn't even tell if they were a boy or a girl) Maddening rant. Gods, the things that they had said- The amount of truths that they had exposed, some of them now with evidence to back them up...

Thank goodness that they didn't have any evidence to back up their claims about himself and Salem, though the fact that they themselves admitted it, as well as supported some of their other claims with hard evidence that they had somehow procured as well... That was enough to get people to start questioning things.

"I can't, Ozpin," Glynda began as they both sat in the cockpit of their Bullhead, Glynda taking over the piloting from him as they flew towards the Emerald Forest, "If we go any faster, we'll outrun the rest of the convoy and be heading in alone, and I'd rather we didn't get shot down, especially with no backup."

"...Of course," Ozpin conceded, looking out of the cockpit window to see the dozens of airships and Bullheads that were now leaving Vale and flying towards the Emerald Forest, all of them packed with Huntsmen and Huntresses, armed to the teeth and ready to fight.

Of course, if they were listening to the speech on the CCT, that spirit that they held within them may start to wane. Or wax, depending on their pride. Huntsmen were a prideful lot, after all. To see their honour tarnished by some hacker on the CCT would spur them more into action than any call for help from a civilian, much to his personal shame.

"I can shut off the radio, if you want," Glynda added in with.

"No, that won't be necessary," Ozpin waved it off with, "If this person- If this Cult- Truly knows our secrets, then it is best that we know exactly how much they know."

_"Yes, even the Huntsmen are not immune to the corruption of our society's dredges and dregs. Remember the Animal Farm case?"_

Once more, a fresh batch of links and attachments flooded his scroll. Court transcripts and verdicts, more bank details and invoices, reports of law infractions, police details and case files, and then on top of that, survival statistics, defence spending rates, settlement loss charts, and so on, so forth. All of them, he knew, could be traced back to legitimate sources, from universities, to police stations, to even government and council institutions. This had to be the greatest cyberattack in Remnant's history.

Unless it wasn't a cyberattack.

What if this cult was handed the information that they wanted?

What if they had hands in all of these different institutions and stations of society?

Such a thought... Was terrifying, to say the least.

_"Everyone knows of the Animal Farm case, don't they? You'd have to be living under a rock to know of what happened to Animal Farm, but for the uninitiated, allow me to provide you with a history lesson: More than a decade ago, there was an part of the slums of Mantle called Rosa Town, derogatively named Animal Farm by the people of Atlas, due to its population being primarily Faunus. For years, they were a relatively self-sufficient town, living on their own, disconnected from the rest of Mantle. They governed themselves, had their own police force, their own infrastructure, and so on, so forth."_

This was the basic, and easy to understand truth, of course. However, Ozpin knew that there was a deeper meaning to the existence of Rosa Town: It was a grand experiment on the part of Atlas, as a way to see how towns in lower Mantle could govern themselves without oversight from Atlas themselves. It was the Atlesian council's personal pet project, and also served as a way to segregate the Faunus of Mantle into a specific location, so that they could keep an eye on all of them.

_"However, some people took umbrage with the idea of a Faunus town living self-sufficiently, let alone a Faunus town at all. In particular, members of the Human Liberation Front, supported by sympathisers within the Atlesian military infrastructure, felt threatened by the idea of a Faunus community, as it might undermine their agenda of treating Faunus as unintelligible animals, especially with the local humans of Mantle intermingling with this town freely, and sought to put it to the torch."_

He knew what was about to come.

_"But... They wouldn't have been able to do so without the leadership of a Huntsman, known as Hector Blau."_

And there it was.

_"Huntsmen are walking armies in of themselves, but Hector Blau's semblance was something in of itself. The ability to boost the morale and convictions of everyone around him through his words alone. Conviction, that's what he called it. So, what it any wonder than when he, at the head of a small army of racists, gathered from all around Remnant, walked into Rosa Town with pitchforks and torches, the massacre was absolute?"_

He grimaced. It was a failure on his part. He had set up the Huntsman system back in his previous incarnation as the King of Vale. The sins of Hector Blau, and every other Huntsmen that turned away from the light and embraced the darkness, were his own sins as well.

_"Hardly anyone survived the massacre. Animal Farm, as it was so labelled, was burnt to the ground. It took the combined efforts of the Happy Huntresses, 2 teams of Ace-Ops, Brigader Ironwood, an entire company of Atlesian commandos, and so many more, just to put them down. And then, when Hector Blau was captured, and brought forwards for a trial, was he sentenced to death for his crimes- His terrible, terrible crimes? NO! Instead, he was released and reassigned, on the grounds of being a Huntsman, a 'Resource too important to lose', as the courts themselves said. The effects of this decision can still be felt to this day."_

Indeed they could. The Animal Farm case was considered to be the true start of the White Fang-Atlas conflict. During her reign of the White Fang, Sienna Khan has repeatedly used the massacre of Rosa Town as justification for the organisation's increasingly violent activities. Many Faunus public speakers and activists turned to violence because of the massacre, and the Happy Huntresses publicly resigned from Atlas because of it. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Ironwood had been promoted due to his handling of the operation, though others unfairly thought that he was using the massacre as a way to elevate his position within the Atlesian military.

_"I just- I'm sorry, but I just want everyone to think. I just want everyone to wonder how far the corruption goes. How many Huntsmen have exploited the system to get what they want? How many Huntsmen have been committed even the most heinous of crimes, only to be let off because of their status? How far does the poison go? And what is the point of the Huntsman system in the first place? Does it even even protect us in the first place? You can see the statistics and the maths for yourselves: We loose settlements out in the frontier faster than we can build them up. The global population is slowly dropping lower and lower every year, and yet more and more Huntsmen are going rogue, or choosing to serve the council and protect their precious cities, within the safety of the walls, away from the monsters that seek to consume us. Every day, we are marching closer and closer to extinction, and yet we continue to delude ourselves into believing that we are in an era of peace. I mean, of the likes of Ozpin and Ironwood and Lionheart and Theodore, do they even have a plan to save us? Do they even have a strategy to defeat the Grimm, or are they just blindly sending your children out to die for a pointless, unwinnable war?"_

It didn't matter if they were even speaking the truth or not.

They had already won.

By planting the idea of Ozma and Salem in their heads- By even suggesting that there was a queen of the Grimm- They had given the people cause for doubt, to wonder about what they knew about the Grimm.

By calling out the corruption of Mistral, they undermined the faith of all of the councils.

By drawing attention to the SDC and the growing dust shortages, they would turn people paranoid, and would begin a mass panic-buying spree, severely crippling the economy, and only worsening the dust shortages.

By exposing the inherent racism within Atlas, they would convince others to begin railing against the inherent racism in every system, spreading unrest and public divisions.

By exposing the flaws in the Huntsman system, they would undermine the system itself, and shatter people's faith in it, regardless of how many people it truly was.

And by providing evidence for just a few of them, it would make people wonder wherever the other claims that they had made were true or now as-

_"Well, Ozpin? Do you have a plan or not?"_

Both Ozpin and Glynda froze up, and looked towards each other in veiled fear, "They can hear us?" Glynda asked.

(Behind them, out of sight, the Hunter held their scroll through the slit of the door to the cockpit, keeping their camera trained on the 2 in the cockpit. It was a wonder that they weren't seen.)

_"Of course we can hear you, Glynda. How on Remnant would we be able to show the world the truth about the Huntsmen without an exclusive interview with one of their biggest supporters, Headmaster Ozpin himself? And, please, you're on the air now. No need to hold back on the details?"_

_How can they hear us?_ Ozpin wondered, before wincing, and then moving to do as Glynda suggested before, and turn off the radio-

_"Ah ah ah, don't touch that dial! This is an exclusive, after all? Don't you want to share your plan to defeat the Grimm with the world? Wouldn't you like to show us all the light at the end of the tunnel, to give us hope, and remind us on how we're going to survive as a species?"_

Ozpin winced again. If he turned off the radio, he lost. If he talked to the person on the radio and began making false promises, he lost. If he spoke the truth, he lost.

He couldn't reveal the truth about Salem. It would cause too much panic. Their society was already incredibly fragile. The truth of Salem's existence would only tip them over the edge.

"What do you want?" Ozpin finally asked.

_"And there he is, ladies and gentlemen! Our exclusive interview with the man himself: Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon Aca-"_

"What. Do. You. Want?"

There was a pause, before they then said, _"I want you answer my earlier question: What is your plan?"_

"My plan?"

_"To defeat the Grimm, of course! I mean, you wouldn't just send people's children out into the world, knowing that they would die in vain, would you?"_

…

_"Have you nothing to say?"_

"The people that do die for humanity don't die in vain."

_"But they do die for a better world, don't they?"_

"Of course they do. Do you believe that I wouldn't watch the students of our academies train for the whole of their lives thinking that they won't serve as the foundations for a better world?"

_"But is it a world that we can reach, Ozpin? You can see the reality around you, no? You can see the population numbers drop constantly, year by year. At the end of the Great War, we started with 200,000,000 people on the planet, and now that number has been halved. The average Huntsman life expectancy is less than 30 years old. We are running out of safe places to mine dust. The Grimm are constantly at our door, and will destroy us if our own internal divisions do not do so first. We are on our last legs as a species. All of this? This is us flailing our arms against what looks like the inevitable end. So, Ozpin, tell me, what is the plan? How do we continue on as a species, with all of this stacked against us?"_

…

Ozpin didn't know.

The end for mankind was coming, wherever they wanted it or not. Soon, the kingdoms would inflate with refugees from outside the walls, and their internal divisions would spring up as the dust ran out. The kingdoms would fall apart, and mankind would be left to the Grimm.

The end was in sight.

And all that he could do was delay it as much as possible.

"We survive," he finally answered, "We always have done. We'll fight against the Grimm, and we'll keep fighting, and we'll keep surviving. Surely that is all that we can do."

There. He said it.

That was the basic confirmation of the truth.

That he didn't have a plan.

Had he said the right thing? Was there more that could've been said?

He didn't know.

All he knew, was that wherever for right or wrong...

History was made here, with his words.

Now he had to suffer the consequences.

 _"...A noble ideal,"_ there was a hint of melancholy in the person's voice, _"But ideals will only get us so far against reality. Now is no longer the time for sentiment. Now is the time for action."_

Glynda looked at him, worry and fear in her eyes. She had about as much idea of what to do as he did, and it showed.

All Ozpin could do was press his hands against his face for a few seconds, before taking hold of the cane at the side of his chair and gripping it tightly (A reflex that he had learnt in the last few years), Before asking, "What do you want?"

It was the same question, but with a different meaning.

The person on the microphone understood this, _"What do we want? What does the Cult of Silver want?"_

Another pause, before they finally answered.

_"The reclamation of our future. That is what we want. It is the duty of Silver-Eyed Warriors to save civilisation, and that is what we will do."_

Ozpin and Glynda shared a look.

_"As we speak, our friends in the Emerald Forest are being gathered and briefed. Soon, our species will finally rise up against the Grimm. We will siege the Lands of Darkness, and cull the agents of chaos. We will end the differences between man and woman, black and white, human and Faunus. We will wipe the Grimm of the face of Remnant, and uncreate our uncreators. We will craft mankind anew, and lead them into a new world, a new kingdom, and a new age."_

It was no longer just Salem on the chessboard. An entirely new enemy had revealed themselves, and had completely changed the game.

_"We will forge mankind into a new, eternal empire! And when we have cleansed this world of evil, we will turn our righteous rage against the gods themselves! We will steal away their power, and become the new gods of our worlds! We will all become gods! Forever ascendant! And once we have taken our vengeance, then, there will finally be peace."_

What scared Ozpin the most, though, was that in this person's voice, he could see the strength, and the will, to do just that.

_"For all mankind, we will rise, into the Age of Silver!"_

* * *

She looked through the vivid green eyes of her little sister, and felt fear.

She could sense the old bonds between kingdoms and communities breaking, thanks to the silky words of the Cult of Silver. Factions were beginning to form. Plans were beginning to fracture, yet formulate. Everything was coming undone.

Paranoia would soon set in amongst the truth and lies of Remnant, and all of its hidden secrets would soon be revealed.

But, that was not her purpose, nor was it her concern.

She had a duty, to her little sister, and her elder siblings.

Protect Pyrrha Nikos, at all cost.

That was her duty.

That was her mission.

And she would follow it to the letter, no matter what.

And so, Hariti cracked her neck. She put a hand through her messy blond hair that was tied into ponytails behind her, and blinked her ruby red eyes. The armour around her left arm glistened as her kneepads formed. Ruby red and black fabric formed around her as she looked out to the world beyond.

"待っててね、妹さん。"

Pyrrha was in danger.

It was time for her to introduce herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to let you know, Hariti's appearance is loosely based off of Felt from Re:Zero, with some modifications as well, like from Pyrrha's original appearance, as well as some elements from Emerald Sustrai as well.
> 
> There are also 3 very important themes that are going to be running throughout this story:
> 
> Truth and lies.
> 
> Trust.
> 
> And paranoia.
> 
> Suffice to say, no one in this story is going to be holding all of the facts. The only people that will know the whole truth is the Cult of Silver itself. Everyone else is going to be telling truths and lies to each other, and everyone will have to face the threat of being consumed by their own distrust and paranoia.
> 
> You're already seeing it in this story, aren't you?
> 
> So, be ready for all of that.
> 
> As I've said in Ascendancy, things are going to worse before they get better.
> 
> The light is always darkest before the dawn.
> 
> But with all of that said and done, leave a review, favourite, follow, and as always, stay safe, and I shall see you all next time!
> 
> Titanmaster117 out!


	9. Beacon part 7: Battles and Invitations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Confrontations are made, and so are invitations...

**Main theme:** _[Death Hymn by Lucas King](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmTN8wu2AM8)  
_ **Arc theme:** _[Rise from the Destiny 2 soundtrack](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=intmEEVphig)  
_ **Theme:** [_Stay Down from the Destiny 2: Beyond Light soundtrack_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbVh5JvgTE0)

* * *

He tried to focus.

He tried to focus on the swaying of the Bullhead underneath him as it tilted from side to side, swerving through the air towards their destination...

And he tired to not focus on the fact that the Bullhead was going nowhere near as fast as he wanted it to.

He tried to focus on the glowing blue strip of light in his knuckledusters, a simplistic weapon compared to the absurdities that he had seen during his time as a teacher in Signal...

And he tried not to focus on the fact his 2 daughters- The 2 people that he held closest to him in the world- Were right in the pits of hell, fighting for their lives against an army of fanatical madmen.

…

He tried not to focus on how batshit terrified he was of the chance that he might not ever see his daughters again...

And tried to focus of how many of these fuckers he was going to tear apart for hurting his family, be it Salem or otherwise.

"Tai-Guy?"

Tai looked behind himself to see one of his company (X.L. Valerian Securities) Employees looking up at him curiously. A younger woman dressed in blue, gold, and white frills split off into multiple sashes, with black and brown knee high boots that covered a long pair of stockings over her legs, and a white shirt with puffy short sleeves, a blue strip of fabric that covered her shoulders, upper chest, and neck, a golden necklace with a blue gem connected to a light blue piece of fabric that ended between her breasts, and shoulder length brown hair that held a white and blue flower pendant in it, and sharp blue eyes that looked like they were made of ice.

Kaia Blush. His second in command, technically speaking. She looked up at him with a worried expression on her face, "You okay?"

"...Yeah..." was Tai's late reaction, "I'm fine."

A harsh poke to his shoulder and a pout was her retort, "You shouldn't lie, you know. Lying's bad. Lying's a big bad. A big bad thing wrapped up in a bad pastry... Cloth... Thing, like a... Like a big bad burrito."

Tai admired her simple logic. Truly, he did. He just laughed in response (As much as he could), And just glumly replied, "I'm just... They're in the Emerald Forest."

"Your kid?"

"My kids, yeah. Ruby and Yang," he nodded. Kaia wasn't always... Quick on the update, when it came to a lot of things. But, she made up for it with her unending optimism.

That unending optimism then reared its head once more, as she smiled brightly and said, "Ah, don't worry Tai-Guy, they'll be fine!" she blinked, and then looked to the side, "At least, I think they'll be fine. I mean, they're your kids, yeah, but, I mean, they're also not you, and you're you, and not them, so they might to okay, but they also might not be and-"

A dark blue armoured hand grabbed her head.

"Kaia."

"Yeah?"

"Stop."

"Okay."

Tai looked to the side, to see one of his other trusted members of his security company, a tall man who constantly wore blue armour with a golden visor and silver faceplate, a simple sword at his side, and a large rocket cannon on his shoulder, with a deep purple symbol of a jagged frowning man on his chest, letting go of Kaia's head allowing her to slump off to the side and rub the sides of her face with a whine. Tai knew that underneath the man in question was called Romero Julius, though for some reason, he much preferred to be called Maelstrom instead.

Edgy, sure, but there were much edgier names to have.

Lord Mangler of Souls, for example.

Still though, Tai looked over the 2 of them, and the other members of his crew in their company Bullhead, then looked out through the viewport in the side, and watched the Emerald Forest, and all of the chaos within it, grow closer and closer.

All that he could do was tap his foot in worry, and just hope that Ruby and Yang were doing fine.

* * *

Yang was not doing fine.

 _This is some bullshit_ , she found the time to think to herself as-

{KA-BOOM}

-She was flung to the side by a powerful explosion of ice, and then-

{CRACKLE}

-Rolled to the side to avoid an incoming column of ice that was barrelling towards her, _When the hell did these 2 get so strong!?_

It didn't make any sense. Just less than a few days ago, she had absolutely demolished the Malachite twins! She smashed one into a pillar back in Junior's nightclub for fucks sake!

So when the hell did they get so strong?!

Another column of ice flew towards her like a wave, and Yang threw herself out of the way as she fired off another pair of blasts from her shotgun gauntlets towards the annoying pair of twins. Nearby, Blake jumped away from her fight with a group of cultists and shot at the twins as well, whilst Weiss sent off a flurry of dust powered blasts towards them, soaring blue in the air.

None of that destructive power fazed the 2 of them. The one in white- Melanie Malachite- Erected a giant wall of ice to block them, whilst the one in red- Miltia Malachite- Jumped out from the side of the wall and charged Yang, a cultist armed with a spear accompanying her as backup as she unveiled her new weapons, long claws- Practically arm blades- That stretched from her hands to elbows, with a line of ice covering them as she cartwheeled towards Yang, swiftly dodging several shotgun blasts as well, and then applied an axe-kick to the blonde girl's neck, and then a line of swipes to her face. Thankfully, her aura absorbed the blows, but it was enough to slightly disorientate her as Miltia's open palm covered itself in ice, before shoving it into Yang's chest and, with a scream of pain from the girl, freezing her clothing and the upper layers of her skin solid, before applying a devastating punch to it, and-

{CRUNCH}

-Shattering the front part of her clothing, revealing her breasts to the world.

It would've been attractive if it wasn't for the fact that the top layers of her skin had been frozen solid as well, as that shattered like glass as well, leaving her chest cracked like grass, and blackening from the concentrated cold as a deep frostbite began to settle in. Her skin was red and white and black and wrinkling and ugly from fractures and blood that was freezing like ice, turning into a spiderweb pattern of fractures and puncture wounds. It was almost like shards of her own frozen skin had impaled themselves into her as blisters and bubbles began to grow on her, before splitting open and peeling the remaining reddened layers of her skin left.

Yang screamed in pain as her skin cracked and peeled layer by layer, almost like an onion, before looking over to Miltia and snarling as she...

Yang had figured that Miltia would be feeling vengeful for what happened at the nightclub. She had expected her to look smug at the thought of causing her pain, or prideful at the sight of it.

There was no trace of pride or smugness at all on her face. All that she wore was a saccharine calm, a gentle smile on her lips as if she thought that the pain that she had inflicted upon her was some kind of kindness.

As yellow flickers of aura danced across her chest, Yang roared, and her hair was alit with flame. Thanks to the blows that she had tanked, her semblance had not stored up the kinetic energy, and was now ready to be released.

And so, Yang charged forwards, and wheeled her arm back for one big punch. Miltia, meanwhile, pulled her arms up and coated them in ice once more, and-

One of the cultists got in the way and, in some stupid display of heroism, took the blow for her.

By the time Yang realised that he had no aura, it was already too late.

Her fist, supercharged and carrying all of the kinetic energy that was stored up inside of her, tore through his armour, cracked open his ribs, and crushed his heart in one fell blow. His chest exploded outwards from the sheer force behind the blow, covering Yang with gore and bone and blood, whilst underneath his helmet, torrents of red liquid flow down his chin and neck, before his left shoulder split open- Practically exploding itself- Before his body uncurled itself from Yang's blood-soaked arm, and slumped downwards to the ground, the corpse giving off a series of twitches and jutting movements, before finally going still.

…

…

…

…Wha…

…What?

What was...

No...

No, that...

That wasn't...

She didn't...

She didn't mean to...

She wasn't trying to...

…

…

…

…

Oh god.

Yang took a step back, and then another, and then another. Her eyes left the ravaged corpse on the floor, and towards her hand, still absolutely caked in blood. Her mouth began to shoot off silent words and mutters as her mind tried to process what she had just done.

She hadn't...

She hadn't...

She just wanted to knock the girl out...

She never wanted to actually kill someone!

She almost fell to her knees as she shook in place. She had never taken another life before. Grimm didn't count because they were soulless monsters, and therefore didn't count as a life, but... But people... Actually people? She had always jokingly said that she could do it, but she had never...

She had never...

She wanted to vomit.

"Dammit, Cyrus," a voice muttered to themselves, "You didn't have to do that."

Yang looked up and narrowed her eyes, focusing herself on Miltia as she looked down at the ruined cultist's body with sorrowful eyes, "You knew him?" she asked with a stutter, trying to sound more confidant than she actually was.

"Only for a day," Miltia admitted, though there was a mournfulness to her voice, "He struck me as the heroic type, always wishing to give his life for a good cause. I suppose he finally got his wish."

"'A good cause'?" Yang asked incredulously, "You call this- You are killing people right now, aren't you?! You and your cult!" a pause. Suddenly, the world around them, and all of the chaos that came with it, was forgotten as they talked, "How did you even... How did you get this strong so quickly?"

It was now, on closer inspection, that Yang could see the changes in Miltia, and in observation, Melanie as well. Underneath all of their winter clothing and gear, their bodies had been bulked up. No longer were they small and petite like before, with thin bodies and limbs. Now, they were bulky, and covered in muscles. They had grown an inch, as well as a cup size, like whatever had changed them was purposely outlining their own sexuality. However, their arms and legs were lined with dense skin and toned muscles, with broad shoulders, and Yang could somehow tell that they both had six-packs underneath their coats. Any traces of fat, baby or not, that covered them were all gone, as their faces were now sharper and more defined, without a single blemish covering them.

And their eyes... What was once a lime green was now swimming with waves of silver underneath.

A loud snarl broke her thoughts, and Yang quickly looked to the side, to see that Melanie was wildly fighting both Blake and Weiss, alongside a group of her fellow cultists. And there was a harsh emphasis on wildly, as Melanie threw herself at the 2 initiates with snarls and thrashing claws and talons. She looked more like a wild animal than a person.

The Cult... They... They did something to them.

"What did they do to you?" Yang asked, her blood-soaked hand still shaking as she took a step back, "Did they... Did they brainwash you?"

"They enlightened us," Miltia replied. Even her voice was changed. The country-girl drawl that was lined her voice was now gone. Her voice was now husky, seductive, almost like a constant purr, "This," she gestured to her enhanced body, "Is their gift to us."

She walked around the corpse on the floor- Around, not over. Almost like a show of respect towards it- And then towards Yang herself. Every step was a show, punctuating her hips. A hand glided over her own arm, ghosting over every little bump of muscle. Her head cocked to the side, her eyes glistening in green and silver, her lips curled to a thin, but somehow still sincere smile.

"They have gifted us sight," Miltia's voice came out as a seductive whisper, almost like a song, as her husky tone wormed its way into Yang's mind, "For so long, we were blind. There was so much darkness that clouded us, but then they removed the veil from our eyes, and for the first time in our lives, we could see. We could see the filth of ourselves, our lives, and the world around us. We could see the corruption that sunk in, making us complacent, mad, worse than Grimm."

Yang couldn't move. Why couldn't she move? All that she could do was watch as Miltia practically pressed herself against the blonde haired girl, and looked up at her, smiling as she continued to whisper to her.

"Join us, Yang," she purred, "That business at the bar? Water under the bridge. Nothing more than old history. The fat old men that you would've served as a Huntress? Their time is finally done? And what could they give you anyway? Love? We have all of the love that you could even want."

She giggled. She actually giggled, and ran her hand up Yang's bloody arm, before pulling it up, and pressing her hand against her own cheek. It left a bloody print on Miltia's cheek.

"We have so much that we can give you. There is so much that we want to give you. Love? We will drown you in it, be it romantic or otherwise. Power? We have displayed that, no? Why would we not want to share it with you? We would give you all of the power in the world, and then the world itself. You would never know that crippling weakness of your old life ever again. After all, the strong survive and the weak die, don't they? Isn't that what you believe? If that is the case, then we would make you the strongest woman in all of existence. We would raise you to that of the gods and beyond. We will kill the gods, and become the gods themselves, and when our silver empire reigns over the world- When there is finally peace for all on Remnant, and when the name Remnant is no longer needed- We shall place you in the court of our emperor and empress- Our father and mother eternals- And we shall finally know peace."

Her soundless breath was cold, like a cloud.

"Doesn't that sound nice, Yang? Doesn't that sound enticing? Doesn't that sound like so much more than that whore of a woman, Raven, could ever do for you?"

…

How did she know who Raven was?

How did she... Didn't she show Junior a photograph of Raven? Is that how she knew?

But still...

…

Yang didn't want to admit it, but there was...

There was a twisted seductiveness to her proposition.

To never be weak again? It was... It was...

It was enticing.

But still, this was wrong.

She was wrong.

Right?

"Or would you rather kill me?"

Yang blinked, but the gentle calm, and the saccharine smile on Miltia's lips never left.

The red dressed twin pulled Yang's red-soaked arm from her cheek- The print left behind dripping fresh blood- And pressed her knuckles against her forehead, and with her other hand, she cocked her shotgun.

She was inviting Yang to kill her.

"There," Miltia purred, "Do it."

"Wha…"

"Kill me if it pleases you," Miltia invited, "Come on, it is easy. You have already killed one, have you not? What's one more?"

"I..."

"And if you do kill me, then so what? You won't be blamed for it. I am just another enemy, am I not? If you kill me, then all you shall receive is a slap on the wrist for it? It is the nature of the Huntsman system, you know, and as a direct descendant of the famous Team STRQ, then Ozpin will surely look over it. After all, this is a battle, and the world beyond the city walls is harsh, and cruel. It's a dog-eat-dog world out there, didn't you know? You must have the strength to kill to survive? My death would be a mere, easily overlooked, stepping stone. And besides, it would feel good, would it not? I do not feel pleasure in the art of war- In the heat of combat, nor at the idea of taking a life- But you? You revel in combat. You live for the thrill of the fight, no? This? You killing me? It is a mere progression of that desire for war. So go ahead. Have your fill of blood if it shall please you."

She giggled.

"Go ahead... Do it."

That was... She was...

"You..." Yang stuttered, "You're insane..."

That was all that Yang could say to Miltia's proclamation. That... Callous disregard to her own life... That willingness to die just for the sake of Yang's non-existent bloodlust... How else could she describe it?

She already wanted to vomit at the thought of killing someone. She didn't want another person's blood on her hands!

She looked down, and blinked. The saccharine smile on Miltia's face was gone.

Now, it had been replaced by a simmering anger.

"Insane?... No, this is not insanity... For the first time in my life, I am truly sane."

The purr was replaced with a growl, and Miltia's grip on Yang's arm tightened. With her other arm, she pressed it against Yang's chest, and pushed her arm up, forcing the gauntlet away from her face. Yang was ashamed at the fact that she had whimpered from the pain.

"Do you know what the definition of insanity is, Yang? It's doing the exact same thing over and over again, and expecting something to change. Now, tell me: What do the Huntsmen do? They throw their bodies against the Grimm again and again, and expect something to change when they do? But nothing ever changes, does it? Actually, scratch that: Nothing good ever happens, does it? Settlements are still lost more than they are saved. The Grimm continue to steal away our lands and our lives. We continue to run out of dust and food and shelter. Our cities still overflow with refugees and the lost. Our leaders still revel in corruption. Our society still carves itself apart with divisions and false differences. Racists and sexists still spread their dribbling hatred like infant children. And yet, what do the Huntsmen do? They do nothing to help the problem. Instead, they stroke off their delusions of grandeur, and rape the world for its pleasures and self-satisfying glory, all for a rotten status-quo that will do nothing but bring us to ruin!"

She wheeled back her arm, covering it in jagged shards of ice, and slammed it into her chest, cracking it open once more into a shower of frozen blood and skin as Yang was thrown back across the wide open plain, skidding across the dirt and creating a trail of mud beneath her, whilst nearby, Miltia just cracked her knuckles, glared down at Yang as she walked slowly towards her.

"But this time, Yang Xiao Long... This will be different. Do you hear not the cries of the people around you? Have you not heard the words of those around you, in the cities, all the way to the Frontier and the wildlands? The time of the kingdoms is ending. The time of the Grimm is ending. The time of mankind is ending. Now, we must seize the means to build ourselves a new world, of which we shall do so. We shall carve a new throne out of the old. We shall create a new dust to replenish the old. We shall seize the lands that the Grimm have taken from us, and grow food for our children. We shall march under a single banner, and unify the entire world under our name. The Cult of Silver rises, and so will Remnant, and all of man."

For the first time since their conversation had begun, there was an air of confidence to Miltia now.

"For all mankind, the old must, and will, be washed away, so that our new era may begin."

Yang winced, and got up to her feet. Cocking her other shotgun gauntlet in defiance of the Malachite twin, looking down to her chest, and seeing how utterly fucked it was. Gods above it hurt like hell.

But Yang sure as hell wasn't about to go down without a fight.

If only she could get the nagging feeling of doubt out of her head as she charged forward and roared.

* * *

Swiping a gun off of the floor and giving it a quick lookover, Jaune then aimed down the sights and fired.

{BANG BANG BANG}

He did his best to not let the recoil fling the gun out of his hands, but he was still thrown off by it as he forced himself to watch the rounds bounce off of the Cultist's metal shield, before rolling out of the way and-

Yep, ow, his shoulder still hurt like hell.

-Taking cover behind a slab of upturned rock as a group of Cultists continued to hammer his position with bullets, and then jumping and running to the side as one of them threw a grenade near to him, and then-

{BOOM}

{SHOOM}

-Exploding outwards into a shower of jagged ice shards and snow, catching Jaune's back as his clothes, as well as-

"AUGH!"

-The skin on the back of his arms, legs, and back itself froze solid, freezing and blistering from frostbite.

Jaune didn't have enough time to contemplate the pain, still being in the heat of battle and all, so he strained and moved, and eventually-

{CRACK}

"UGH!"

-Broke the frozen skin on his body as he moved, cracking into blackening spiderweb patterns underneath his wet and bloody clothes, frozen blood cracking like snowflakes as he supressed a scream from the sheer pain, and slammed his shield into the neck of a nearby cultist, leaving him on the ground gasping for air before he levelled his newly acquired gun once more and-

{BANG}

-Sent it into the leg of one of the cultists. Of course he had a metal knee guard on, but it was enough of a blow to disorientate him enough for Jaune to slam the butt of his new rifle into his helmeted head, and then running off to the side before he could recover.

Where were Ren and Pyrrha in the middle of all of this?

Pyrrha were busy fighting the fake-Ruby behind them, while Ren was ducking between cover as he fired on the cultists.

The 3 of them had found themselves in a dangerous position after running through and through the ever-changing and dissolving reigns of the forest. Now, they had found themselves on a narrow pathway- A crack between the expansive and ever-winding acres of forest- And had only just seen the giant troop transport, camouflaged by the trees above, that had been following them for a long time.

Excuse them for not noticing, but it was hard not to be distracted by the giant mass of murderous red tendrils behind them?

And now, they were trapped. A fake-Ruby overflowing with snapping tendrils and violent malevolence behind them, 2 squad's worth of heavily armed cultists before them, and a giant troop carrier hovering above them, raining blue fire down onto them and leaving craters in the forest itself, igniting the trees around it as gangs of initiates and cultists continued to battle around them.

They had nowhere to go. Jaune and Ren couldn't break through the cultists before him on his own, and Pyrrha were too busy trying to make sure that the fake Ruby didn't catch them at their heels, not to mention the ship above them continuing to take pot-shots at them, nipping at them as they continued to roll and dodge blasts of ice and snow.

Where the hell were they supposed to go now?

Jaune spied a quick look at the cultists before them, and as they called orders to each other, he began to make out their rank and file.

The lowest ranking and most common members seemed to be called Adherents, and were the basic foot soldiers of the cult, covered in silver and blue body armour with dark blue cloaks, and were armed with scavenged and basic rifles.

Cultists with shields were called Deacons, and acted as the Cult of Silver's support units, armed with wide shields and machine pistols, and dressed in much lighter armour pieces, mostly replaced by dark blue and silver robes.

The larger, more intimidating of the Cultists- Standing at, what, 10 feet tall? Yeah, 10 feet. Wasn't that unnaturally tall for a person?- Were called Templars, and they were walking juggernauts, covered in bulky, yet rounded silver armour with a dark blue cloak strewn over it, with a helmet that held 3 glowing blue dots for eyes on other side of the helmet, a pair of horn like protrusions on either side of the helmet, a dark blue pauldron on their left shoulders with 4 spikes jutting out of it, and several tubes and wires jutting out of their helmets and onto their backs, where a pair of large canisters with what looked like liquid nitrogen, which itself was connected to the large, very intimidating cannon that they held in their hands, a cold flow of air emanating off of it, whilst a long, thin blade sang from their left wrist, singing in the air as it moved.

The second to last variant of Cultist that he could see was called a Bishop, dressed in a more simplistic design, in pure silver armour with blue rings around the arms, and long inverted blades like scythes running down their arms, with dark blue belt capes around their wrists, and their rounded helmets held a single glowing blue dot in the middle of them, with a black line running down the middle of it, dividing the helmet in 2, resembling that of a lowercase I. In their hands, they wielded a simple pair of pistols.

There was one last variant of Cultist that he could see barely held any armour on them at all. In fact, they held barely anything on them. The rest of the Cultists called them the Sinful: People enthralled by whatever spell the Cult had put on them, and turned into rabid animals wearing nothing but a few robes, almost like zombies with no will of their own. From the callous way that their fellow Cultists treated them, they must've been deemed heretics when the Cult got them, and this was their punishment: Men and women, human and Faunus alike, stripped naked and only given 1 or 2 dark blue robes to cover themselves, running around on all 4s with snapping jaws and dull, lifeless eyes that glowed a dead silvery blue, and shards of ice growing from their bodies- Puncturing through the skin and bone- And forming claws and talons from which to catch and kill their prey.

One of these Sinful jumped onto Jaune and forced him onto the ground, it's jaw snapping and snarling at him as he used the rifle in his hands to hold it off, before applying his foot to its stomach and kicking it off, shooting it in the leg to keep it down- The recoil almost throwing him off once more- Before slamming his shield into the jaw of another Sinful- Shattering it completely- And running to Ren's side as they continued to fire into the Cultists.

Seriously, what the hell was with these guys!? What the hell did they want with them?!

* * *

Behind them, Pyrrha grunted in blunt pain as another red tendril from the fake-Ruby swiped at her, catching her by the arm and shaving off another portion of her aura. She would've joined the others in breaking through the Cultists before them, as well as their ship, but if she did that then this thing that was chasing them would catch them, and do who knows what to them.

(She didn't have time to notice the slight glow that was emanating from her back.)

* * *

This was a fight that they were losing. Jaune, Ren, and Pyrrha were being pressed closer and closer together- Their fighting space was dwindling, giving them little room to manoeuvre- And from the looks of it, there was no way out for them. They could try running back into the forest, but they were running out of breath already, and-

There was a clearing nearby. And from the sounds of it, there was fighting there as well. That meant more initiates were holding their ground there. If they could get to them, then they could make a proper stand against these guys. Hell, maybe they could make a base for themselves and wait for backup! Like a rallying point!

The only problem with that plan was loosing these guys. They couldn't bring both this fake-Ruby monster, an overhead troop carrier, and an entire gang of heavily armed Cultists with them. They needed to shake them first and break out of this narrow pathway, less they bring them all crashing down onto the heads of their allies.

Then, as if it were a miracle, help arrived.

3 green fireballs shot out of the treeline and into the backs of one of the Templars, detonating the tanks on his back and covering him in liquid nitrogen. He screamed as the liquid poured into the gaps between his armour and froze his skin, but was silenced by-

{ROAR}

-A massive blonde feline creature- Looking like a cross between a panther and a lion- Jumped out of the treeline and into the fray, wrapping its jaw around the Templar's neck and ripping out his jugular, killing him in a bloody mess. The cat like beast then jumped off of the falling corpse and onto one of the Sinful, ripping it apart from its shoulder to its chest, and then slamming it with its tail into a pair of Adherents, before joining a flock of doves that materialised out of the forest, just as-

"WHOO HOO!"

-A fast moving object slammed itself into the chest of a female Deacon, and then ripped the shield out of her arms and flung it like a frisbee into the chest of a Bishop, whilst a boy with an ugly as hell looking mohawk made his entrance by jumping out of the foliage and slamming his feet into the chest of another Bishop, right before sending 3 more neon green fireballs into another Templar, only this time it wasn't as effective as the Templar in question just shrugged it off and sprayed a river of liquid nitrogen at him, before changing it to a ball of pure ice, exploding outwards like an explosive, which the boy quickly dodged in turn, and then ran back outwards to join in on the melee.

Jaune and Ren blinked. They knew these guys.

"Sky?" Jaune called out to them, "Dove? Russel?"

"Hell yeah, man!" Russel called out to him in the middle of a fight, "Who else would be able to save your lives with this much style?"

"But- But where's Anima?!"

The blonde catlike creature perked its head up at this, ran to their side in a hurry, and then-

"Ah! Please don't eat... Huh?"

-Rolled to the ground right next to them, shifting from a giant cat creature, and into-

"Anima?!"

-A fully clothed Anima Senterra, weapon and all in hand. With a smile, she looked up at both Ren and Jaune, and went, "Hey guys! You alright?"

"As alright as can be..." Ren muttered to himself, before asking, "How did you find us?"

"I didn't- At least, not really. Me and the boys decided to dip out of the forest with all of this going on, and we've been running around trying to find an exit," she looked behind them, to see Pyrrha and the fake-Ruby battling each other, and in a grave tone, asked, "Is that-"

"That's Nora," Ren cut in with. At Anima's shocked, questioning look, he continued, "Somehow, that... Thing, took over Nora's body. It- It changed her like she was clay, and it's been hunting us ever since."

Ren spared Jaune a look, but for some reason, so did Anima as well, before she then asked Jaune, "So, what do we do now?"

Why are you asking me?

BECAUSE YOU'RE THE MAN WITH THE PLAN. NOW DO WITH THE PLAN.

Jaune bit his lip and frowned, before pointing to the side and going, "There's a clearing near here, and from the sounds of it, there're initiates still fighting in there as well. If we can reach them, then we can make an actual stand against this thing and its goons. I don't like it anymore than anyone else, but I seriously can't think of any other options."

Anima nodded, "Then let's- MOVE!"

A shot from the troop carrier overhead hit where they had been sitting as they scattered, erupting with a loud-

{KA-BOOM}

-Into a fiery explosion.

Anima regained herself, and then continued, "Then let's get rid of these jokers first! The more we take out here, the less that anyone else will have to worry about!"

Jaune and Ren nodded. It was as good as a plan if they'd ever heard one.

* * *

Behind them, Pyrrha was on the backfoot. She was loosing her breath, her aura was running low, and she was beginning to feel fatigued. Even the Invincible Girl could grow exhausted from a prolonged run and fight.

This thing that wore Nora's body like a glove? It couldn't say the same, from the looks of it.

Every hit that Pyrrha made against it was perfectly countered. Every tendril that she took down was replaced by another. Every breath that she took had a reply in the form of an attack, requiring her to constantly by on the run, constantly dodging and bobbing and weaving through every possible strike and blow, avoiding feints and traps by the second as she slowly began to lose her will to keep fighting.

Slowly.

And now her back was beginning to hurt. Great.

Actually, it was beginning to seriously hurt. She didn't let it show but dammit, this hurt! It was like her back was about to burst wide-

{SLAM}

-One of the tendrils caught her on the arm, and slammed her to the side, right into one of the trees nearby. Her back cracked and curled itself around the tree, and she had to mentally direct what was left of her aura into her spine just to make sure that she could still walk.

The pain in her back from before was gone though. Completely.

That surely wasn't good.

The mass of tendrils that emanated from the once-Nora creature swelled in size and number, and they began to reach down for her. She moved to get back up to her feet- Hey, she could still use her feet. She could still use her legs. At least she had that going for her- But then...

The pain returned.

Oh god, it returned.

And this time, it was coming from her stomach, not her back.

She bit down a scream at the pain. It was like going through childbirth as a bright light began to reach out from her- From her womb? No, from her stomach itself. It was like she was being split open with a butcher's knife as the light seemed to split her completely in 2, before-

A hand reached out from her stomach.

And then, from her being, someone jumped out.

This person twirled themselves in the air, and despite her confusion, Pyrrha did her best to try and keep up with this new challenger that she had given a sort of birth to, as they jumped between red tendril after red tendril, cutting them apart at speeds that she had never seen before, forcing the monster that was once Nora to back off as it repaired itself, allowing the figure to jump down and look back at Pyrrha, giving the girl a good look at her new-born saviour.

It was a petite girl that had cut herself from her stomach, looking like she was only in her early teen years. Much of her messy blonde hair was tied into thin twin ponytails behind her, and ruby red eyes stood out amongst her fair, yet toned skin. Ruby red ribbons and bows adorned the upper half of her right arm, and black and gold armour completely covered her left, with metal kneepads on her legs, and black and black and gold knee high boots on her feet. Black stockings covered what was left of her legs, and reached up to a brown and gold sleeveless, opened vest with a black and red shirt underneath, and a short red tattered scarf covering her neck, with a brown belt covering her waist, holding a sheath for the white and gold dagger in her hand. When she opened her mouth, Pyrrha could spot sharpened, blade-fangs in her jaws.

The emblem on her shirt was exactly like Pyrrha's.

"行け！" the girl yelled to her as she swiped her dagger through another pair of red tendrils, "お姉ちゃん、お兄ちゃんと他の人と繋がって!"

"R-Right!" Pyrrha yelled back as she got up to her feet and began to run towards the others, with several fresh new questions now rolling through her head:

Who was that?

How had she been able to appear by slicing open her stomach.

Why did she called her 'Little sis'?

Who was 'Big brother'?

And since when was Pyrrha able to perfectly understand another language?

* * *

At the front of the group, the now combined effort- Jaune, Ren, Anima, Sky, Dove, and Russel- Were finally able to break through the Cultists before them, running through the group with Pyrrha at their heels.

Behind them, a new type of Cultist known as the Wardens of Faith were dropped from the troop carrier and into the field. 3 hulking, 4 armed beasts, about 15 feet tall, and wearing silver and black body armour with silver and black cloaks and sashes, and red rings around their arms and legs, with smoking vents connected to their backs, tubes running from their backs and feeding into a spiked helmet with long devil horns curving outwards from it, and a long strip of red light where their eyes should be. All 20 of their fingers and thumbs ended with knifelike talons, and they held what looked like pulsating energy weapons in their hands.

And indeed they were energy weapons, as the 3 Wardens of Faith aimed them down and fired off burning red rounds of what must've been plasma at them, igniting the forest around them, and even a few of the Sinful Cultists (Not that they probably cared) Whilst the initiates bobbed and weaved around the path, and then through into the trees, following the sounds of conflict nearby, and into the open, as Jaune spotted-

"Yang?!"

"Arc?!"

-Yang Xiao Long, the sister of Ruby Rose, battling against some other red-dressed woman, whilst nearby, the Schnee girl- Ryuzu's master- And a woman that Jaune hadn't seen before, were battling against what looked liked the red-dressed woman's twin in white, as well as a group of other cultists with her.

And dammit, Yang didn't look well. Quite the opposite. The front of her clothing on her chest looked like it had been frozen and shattered completely. On another day, that might've been attractive, but it was quickly shot down by the ugly wounds on her chest, as spiderwebs of cracks and shatter points in her flesh covered her like tattoos, as if her skin had been turned to glass and kicked. Her skin peeled itself and wrinkled into bloating boils and blisters, and left islands of pale and pinking flesh, bloated from internal bleeding, amidst a sea of violently dissected red, white, and black moulted flesh. Rivers of ice-water and blood drained down her front and into her clothing, and entire continents of skin glistened coldly and peeled in the sunlight, as if they were still frozen.

Jaune was reminded of the still frozen patches in his skin, and grimaced as he moved. He was in incredible pain from just moving, and that probably wasn't all of it. He just did his best to block it all out and move on. That was all Future-Jaune's problem, and not his.

Yang, meanwhile, finally laid eyes on him, in all his wounded, exhausted, and bloody glory, and she snarled. Punting away the girl in red with a violent swing from her arm, she ran up to Jaune and-

{PUNCH}

"AUGH!"

-Slug Jaune in the face, throwing him down onto the ground, and breaking his nose.

Ow.

Before Jaune could even get a word in, Yang grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up to his feet, eyes blaring red as she then screamed, "YOU! YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH THIS, DON'T YOU?!"

"Wha- Hey, miss! Put him down!" Pyrrha called out to her from the side, "We're all on the same side here, are we not?!"

"This fucking piece of shit knows something?!" Yang snarled, "He knew about Summer Rose! He wears her cloak! So why the fuck should I-"

"おい！"

A hand reached out and slapped Yang across the face so hard that it got Yang to let go of the boy. Looking down, both Jaune and Yang saw a petite young girl with blonde twin ponytails and bright red eyes, looking up at Yang with a glare as she put her arms before Jaune.

"兄貴を放っておけこの野郎！"

"Who are- Who are you calling 'Big brother'?!" Jaune asked, "Who the hell are you, anyways?!"

Yang blinked, "You understand what she's saying?"

"Well yeah, she... How can I understand what she's saying?"

A red tendril slammed into the ground near them. A distraction. They were barely able to avoid the swiping tendril coming at them with their lives, and they looked up to see-

Yang's eyes widened, "R... Ruby?"

-The fake-Ruby breaking through the treelines and entering into the clearing-now-arena, elevated above them by the swirling red mass beneath her, as more and more tentacles and tendrils spawned out from her very being. The cultists around them seemed to look at her with a sort of reverence, but that did not deter them from continuing on their fight. If anything, it boosted their morale, and pressed them to fight on even harder, with more and more ice bombs and bullets sounded off around them, all to push their inevitable victory onto the initiates with them.

Yang stuttered, "R-Ruby, is that-"

"That's not Ruby," Jaune muttered, "It can't be..."

Overhead, the troop carrier's lower doors opened up, and 2 new figures joined the fray-

"Oh, what now?!"

-Jumping down into the field, and presenting themselves within the madness. They were twins themselves, with identical female proportions, pale skin tones, long green hair, and deep silver eyes. However, the one in the white dress and black skirt had her hair flowing freely down her back, while the other in a beige shirt and blue jeans held her hair in a ponytail, and prettied by a black ribbon on her head.

"Hello there, everyone," the one in the beige shirt and blue jeans began, bowing as she then said, "I am Lamia."

"And I am Lilith," bowed the twin in the white dress and black skirt.

"We are the Aspects of Amusement."

"And figureheads of the Cult of Silver."

The 2 of them then looked to Jaune, cocked their heads to each other, and what they said next shook him to his very core.

"Hello there, Orion."

"It is so good to finally meet you."

* * *

"Picture, if you will, a time when Remnant was not known as Remnant. It simply was itself.

"Picture a time when mankind- Both human and Faunus- Were pulling themselves out of the pools of creation, and were soft and sticky-wet from their birth. Picture a time when mankind didn't know what it itself was.

"Picture a time when everything on this planet was not set in stone. When death was not even a certainty. When and where the demise of oneself was nothing more than a mere concept, handed out by the reapers- By the bringers of death itself.

"Picture, if you will, the Dark Times.

"The Dark Times was, for Remnant, a time when the concepts and understandings that we know of today were still just that: Concepts. Nothing was set in stone, and we understood nothing of which we know now.

"People didn't know what semblances were. People didn't know what Faunus' were. People didn't know what the Grimm were.

"And people worshipped them all.

"People worshipped other people with semblances, because they saw it as divine sanction from the bastard gods themselves. People worshipped the Faunus because of both differences and fears, because how else can one say that the Faunus exist without the divine intervention of a god or 2? And people worshipped the Grimm, because they were the physical embodiment of death.

"People worshipped the Grimm, because in their death, they gave life itself meaning. The Grimm gave life meaning through its survival. The Grimm gave life through death, by cutting away the old, and giving rise for something new to take its place.

"But the Grimm, through the worship of their believers, became too powerful. They threatened to tear apart the world itself and become the new gods, the new lords of Remnant-that-was-not-yet-named-Remnant.

"And so, they slew and slew and slew. And in their place, their followers conducted as similar a slaughter as their idols. The Dark Times almost saw the total extinction of everything on Remnant, and would be that that solidified death itself as a ontological, existential, and very literal presence amongst the world that they lived in.

"But then came-"

"Where's all of this going, Baobhan?"

Ruby's eyes were sore and bloody. Red still clouded her vision as dried blood stained her cheeks like makeup. The burning sensation had stopped now, and was replaced by a dull ache in the eyes, shimmering silver flowing gently off of them like flickers from a candle. Gods, it was like someone had tattooed something directly onto her eyes.

She was dizzy, she was disorientated, and she wanted to find Yang and figure out what was going on.

Baobhan Sith, seemingly not giving any thought to Ruby's condition at all, just waved it off, and smiled, "I'm getting there. Now, where was I? Ah yes.

"But then came they. They being those that could bring death upon death. They who could uncreate the uncreators with but a single look and a shine of their eyes. They who saw the chaos of the Dark Times, and chose order. They who wore their eyes with pride, and shone that pride onto the world, declaring, 'Here I shall not be death, but life. Here, I shall be that which smites the wicked evil known as death, and here I shall be that which destroys sin from the world.

"They were the first Silver-Eyed Warriors.

"They were real.

"They were right.

"And they paved the way for what Remnant is today."

Baobhan knelt down to Ruby- Whom was sitting up from the floor, still trying to devise a way out of this mess and back to Yang- And teased her cheek with a thumb. Silver looked into silver, and silver stared back in fear.

"Our kind- Silver-Eyed Warriors- We are that which come from the gods. You can feel the power of light within you, yes?"

…Yes.

"You can feel the newly awaken need to kill the Grimm- The personifications of darkness- That need that you have known all of your life yet now sings even truer than before, yes?"

Yes.

"You can feel the need to build and build and build, and to destroy destruction itself, yes?"

"Yes."

That slipped out by accident.

"Good," Baobhan purred, "Our kind- We are above that of both human and Faunus. Our kind have paved the way for Remnant itself to be born. We have paved the way for the first kings of Remnant- Our kind, in all of their wisdom- To take their place on their thrones, and guide mankind towards a certain, peaceful future."

Ruby looked up at her in disgust, "The first kings were monsters! Everyone knows that! They carried out genocides! They invented Faunus slavery! They were the biggest monsters on all of Remnant!"

Baobhan just laughed at this and turned away from her, though strangely enough, there was no mirth behind it, "Every kingdom and society has been built on the backs of slaves, my dear little rose. Every society big and small had been built from slaves," there was a strong lacing of disgust in her voice, "I was a slave once, you know?"

She blinked, "You.. You were?"

"Yes," was her quiet reply. Baobhan rubbed her arm in silence, and then muttered, "I try not to think about it, though.

Ruby immediately felt sympathy for her, but then, in all of her confusion, asked, "What does all of this have to do with me?"

Baobhan looked at her, and any traces of the previous few seconds were gone, replaced once more by that cold, calculating smile, "You, and your friends, Ruby... You are important. You might want to have 'Normal knees' as you call them, but you are indeed special," she laughed, though there was now humour behind it, "Roman Torchwick, the Fall of Beacon, the Battle of Haven, the Defence of Argus and the Battle of Atlas, and everything else... Your path is forever entangled with that of this world. You and your allies are the butterflies that will create the hurricane that will consume this world, and pave the way for something new."

Ruby blinked at this. What... What was this mad woman saying?

Nearby, the fighter that Baobhan had used to get into the forest flew overhead, and hovered in the air above them. Whatever was that for?

"Ruby... I want you to join us. You and your friends. Twilight is coming over the kingdoms. You can sense it, can you not? This age is ending. We are at the precipice of extinction, our kind, as well as that of the human and Faunus flocks. What we are building now is a new home.

"A new age.

"A new kingdom.

"A new empire.

"The Silver Empire, a realm that shall last for all of eternity, and beyond.

"A realm where we shall claim the powers of the gods themselves, and become our own gods ourselves. We shall forge a new realm. We shall kill death itself. And through it, we shall become immortal."

Baobhan clamped Ruby's hands into her own.

"So please, Ruby. Join us. Join the rest of our kind, and be that which will lead us into a new realm."

She chuckled.

"Every empire needs an emperor, after all... As well as an empress."

Ruby looked at her in shock, her bloodied eyes widening and glistening silver like a red and white ocean.

"You... You want me to lead you."

"Of course," Baobhan eagerly replied, "Everyone needs a leader in life."

"..."

Ruby's breathing intensified. She took in long gulps of air as she tried to process the world around her. It was like everything was breaking apart and folding in on itself all at the same time.

"...No."

Her answer was more hesitant than she would've liked.

"I'm sorry, but... No. No, I can't- I won't join you. All of this stuff that you're saying, it's- It's insane. It's crazy! I can't just believe stuff like that willy nilly!"

Seriously, all of that stuff that Baobhan was saying? It just didn't make any sense at all. All of it just seemed like one giant maddening rambling session. Did this woman seriously expect her to just believe all of that stuff?

But, much to her surprise, Baobhan didn't even look disappointed.

"Hm, I had assumed that you would say that. At least, at this time, you would."

She pulled Ruby up to her shaking feet, and took a few steps back from her, raising up her arm-

"So, it looks like a little bit more persuasion is in order."

-And snapping her fingers together.

As soon as she did that, the womb of the ship above opened up, and a black, person-sized box began to float down, covered in blinking white dots and wires as it slowly hovered down to the surface below, where the 2 Silver-Eyed Women stood. Slowly but surely, it reached the ground, and gently floated above the ground, right next to Baobhan herself.

"...What is that?" Ruby asked nervously, taking a step back from the possibly threatening thing.

"An cryogenic coffin," Baobhan answered with a pleasant smile, "Clever little thing, Atlesian cryogenics are."

Ruby was scared to ask, but, "What's inside?"

Baobhan's finger ghosted above the release button-

"You may see."

-Before pressing down on it, and opening up the casket in a hiss of coolant and smoke.

Ruby coughed at the sudden mixture of hot steam and cold air being blasted into her face, but then rubbed her eyes and blinked, before focusing herself and looking through the smoke to see the contents within. Whatever was in this coffin better be...

Coffins were where people put bodies.

…No.

No no no no no.

The cold air and steam dissipated, and finally, Ruby could see what was inside.

"No... No, that... It can't be."

There she was.

Closed silver eyes.

Gothic black and red.

Silver to red hair.

And a brilliant white cloak.

Inside the coffin, laid Summer Rose's corpse.


	10. Beacon part 8: Look Within

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby is shown something that she has lost, Jaune is caught in the middle of a siege, and then...
> 
> There is an awakening.

**Main theme:** _[Death Hymn by Lucas King](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmTN8wu2AM8)_  
**Arc theme:** _[Rise from the Destiny 2 soundtrack](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=intmEEVphig)  
_**Theme:** _[Look Within from the Destiny 2: Beyond Light soundtrack](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDx-QTRtBDE)_

* * *

"...No."

"Yes."

"...It can't be."

"But it is."

"...M... Mum?"

Ruby looked down at the cold corpse in the coffin, laying in the black box with a sheet of ice coating them, making it glisten in the rising sun under a sheet of snow-white fabric, as frozen lilies and roses adorned the body in flower patterns of their own, whilst a crown of grass and flowers adorned her head, and her arms crossed over a broken sword that had been welded back together again.

Summer Rose made for a beautiful corpse, at least.

Ruby took a step back, and felt her breath quicken. Her heart was hurting even more than her eyes earlier. It felt like it was going to burst right in her chest it hurt so much.

She had spent so many years wondering. So many countless nights looking up towards the stars and hoping- Praying, even, to whatever god might be out there- That that would be the night that she finally saw her mother again. That she finally saw her once more, after so long, walking down the steps to their house, ready to be embraced by them once more.

But now, here she... Here she was, right in front of her, laid down to rest.

She was real.

She was dead.

She was gone.

Forever.

…

…

…

…

Ruby couldn't believe it.

"This is a trick."

"It's not."

"This is a lie."

"It isn't."

"You're lying."

"I'm not."

"That's is not my mother!"

"But it is, Ruby. But it is."

…

"H... How did you find her?"

"Oh? Oh, it was nothing. We stumbled upon her years ago, and have been keeping her body suspended in cryostasis ever since. We've never had a good reason to use it, until-"

"Liar."

Baobhan blinked, "Pardon?"

Ruby looked up to her with redding tears in her eyes, "You're lying. You're a liar."

"I'm not lying."

"Yes you are!" Ruby cried out to the white haired woman in the black dress, pointing a finger to the coffin as she then went, "That- That is not my mother! It can't be! You just- You..." she looked down, and her voice began to quiver as she silently asked, "If you had my mother's corpse with you, then why didn't you give it to me years ago?"

"Ah, the opportunity just never arose, I suppose," Baobhan just shrugged. Shrugged! "We've been busy with many other things."

Ruby grimaced and channelled her inner Uncle Qrow, "Yeah, like decorating a corpse," she snarked-

Which was out of character for her, yes, but she was having a very stressful morning, what with being confronted by the corpse of her mother and all, and she was allowed to put in a lick of sarcasm at it all, thank you very much.

-Before turning to the corpse with a shake in her step, as she further resisted the urge to vomit at the sight of her 'Mother' in a coffin, as she then hesitantly asked, "How do I... How do I know that you didn't just... That you didn't just... Kill someone to make it look like Mum?"

Her hands were shaking and her eyes were wide. Her breath was distorted and forced. She was sucking in air through her teeth as she stared wide-eyed at the white haired Cult leader in front of her.

"You... You killed my mother... Didn't you?"

Baobhan's answer was quick enough to be certain, but not quick enough to seemed forced, "No, no no no. Of course not. After all, she was a Silver-Eyed Warrior like the rest of us. Why on Remnant would we want to kill our own kind?"

"How do I even know that you're telling the truth!?" Ruby almost screamed at her, milky pink tears streaming down her face as she pointed to Baobhan Sith, shaking her head from side to side as she then went, "Everything that you've said... Everything! It all just sounds so... So... Ridiculous! You did something to my eyes-"

"I awakened your silver eyes."

"And there you go again! You talking about all of this silver eye stuff! I have no idea what you are talking about, and you think- You act like I should be grateful for you torturing me and showing me my mother's corpse! Do you really think that I'm just going to believe any of that stuff just like that?!"

"Of course not."

Ruby stopped, and stood still in shock.

What... What did she just say?

Baobhan laughed, and then- In an uncomfortable display of closeness- Placed her hand on Ruby's shoulder, and smiled down at the girl, "Of course I don't expect you to just agree with everything that I am saying immediately. I mean, that would just be silly, wouldn't it? I would be disappointed if you immediately latched onto everything that I as soon as I meet you."

She booped Ruby on the nose with her other hand, though that did nothing to calm Ruby's flaying and shredding nerves.

"You know, Ruby, I consider myself more of a teacher than anything else. I oh so wish to teach you about everything that you need to know. We all do, the rest of the Aspects and I. There is so much that you need to learn about the world around you- About all of the things that you have been lied to about, all of the things that you have been kept in the dark about."

With her other hand, she moved it away from Ruby's nose and stroked it across the obsidian black coffin lovingly.

"Your mother's body? Think of it as a sign of truth- Of trust from us. We are giving you your mother's body, and as such, we are being honest. Being generous to you, for lack of a better word."

Her eyes flashed silver.

"But there is so much more that we can offer you- So much more that we can teach you. You can feel it too. The need to build, to create, to uncreate uncreation. We feel the same thing too. We seek to build a new future for all of Remnant. We will build a new type of dust- We are already working on it, you know? We are working hard to do what the SDC could not- We will burn away the Grimm all around the world with just a gaze from our eyes. We shall wipe away the stink and corruption from Remnant, and finally bring all of society together, once and for all. And then, when all of this is done, we shall take the power of the gods, and finally create the utopia that all of mankind- Our kind, and the people that we guard and shepherd- Truly deserve."

Baobhan's hand moved away from the coffin, and stroked a river of tears away from Ruby's cheek, staining it a misty red and pink.

"So come with us, my Empress-to-be. Let us teach you all that there is. Let us love all that you are. Let us build a new world together, free from evil- Free from sin itself."

Baobhan tilted her head to the side.

"Come with us, and together, we shall craft a new world for us all."

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

"No."

Baobhan blinked once, twice, thrice, "Pardon?"

Ruby wormed her way out of Baobhan's grip- It was like she wasn't even bothering to try and keep her there- And took a pair of long steps back, shaking her head as she muttered to herself, "You're mad, you're mad, you're mad, you're mad-"

"Ruby-"

"You're mad! You think-" she shook her head rapidly, "I can't join you, I'm not- I'm not a monster!"

She pointed to the forest, to the madness of the forest, to war machines and death squads culling and capturing as many initiates as they could, hoarding them away for their purposes, to explosions and gunfire and ice shards rocketing up into the sky, clouds of frost and snow jumping up into the sky as initiates were frozen to death by streams of liquid nitrogen. A frozen hell came over the Emerald Forest as the ships hovered in the air like wardens and jailers, raining fire and plasma down onto the world below with impunity, and without conscience.

It was a war. The Cult was waging a war on everyone below.

"Look at this! Look at that! If you actually cared about other people- If you actually wanted to build a future for everyone- Then why are you killing people? Why are you murdering them all?! If you actually cared at all, then you wouldn't be doing any of this!"

Baobhan sighed, as if she was talking to a disobedient child, "Ruby... Sometimes, to do good, one must do evil in turn!"

"That's a lie, and you know it! That's the same 'Necessary evil' rubbish that every single tyrant across history has been sprouting for years! No one should ever do anything evil, no matter the reason! There's no excuse for it! Because every single time someone has sprouted that, they only ever end up becoming the same monsters that they say they're fighting!"

Baobhan's head tilted to the side, "That's a very naïve way of looking at things, Ruby!"

"I don't care! It's the truth!" Ruby pointed to Baobhan with a shaking hand, "You killed my mother, didn't you? You ordered these people to murder every in the forest, didn't you?! And you think that you can just invite me along, and pretend that everything that you're doing is a kindness! You, Baobhan Sith, and the rest of your mad cult, are monsters! And it is up to me and every other Huntsman and Huntress to do what we've always done-"

From her back, she pulled out her weapon- Crescent Rose- And let it unfold in her hand, spinning it around and then stabbing it into the ground as she glared up at the white haired woman.

"-And be there to stop the monsters!"

She began to turn her body away from Baobhan-

"So thanks, but no thanks. My dream is to be a Huntress, and I've got no reason to walk away from that."

-And then looked down, from the cliff that they were standing on, and towards the chaos of the forest below.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I've got places to be."

And with a flash and flutter of disintegrating rose petals, the crow escaped the cobra.

A cloud of rose petals formed over the Emerald Forest, trailing away from the cliff above as Ruby reformed and began to fall down to the forest below, the sounds of battle sounding off all around her, forcing Ruby to dodge a series of traces coming towards her via her own semblance, darting through the air, before-

**"ROOOAAAAARRRRR!"**

-From below, a Manticore Grimm flew out from between the tree, and began to ascend into the sky, heading straight towards her. It's mouth was open and trailing bright orange fire behind it. Wherever it had either seen her from down in the forest, or was just trying to flee the carnage below was irrelevant. It was coming at her with snarling teeth and a fiery jaw, and it was aiming to kill her.

Ruby wouldn't give it the chance.

Twirling her Crescent Rose in her hand, she burst into another cloud of rose petals, and reformed right in front of the Manticore's face.

She looked right into the Grimm's eyes, and hers flashed silver.

And it was the Grimm who flinched first.

Spinning her Crescent Rose in her hands, she then lifted it above her head, before throwing it down-

{STAB}

-And stabbed her scythe into the Grimm's bone covered head.

The beast howled in pain as black viscera leaked from its fresh wound, but Ruby was undeterred as she threw her own body onto the back of the Grimm, twisting the blade of her scythe around, pulling it along behind her as she pressed her feet into the Grimm, and with a-

{BURST}

-Of rose petals, she began to sprint along the back of the Grimm, dragging the blade along and-

{BANG BANG BANG BANG}

-Firing off several shells from her weapon for acceleration, before landing right on the tip of the monster's tail, and with one last thundering-

{BANG}

-From her weapon, and a-

{BURST}

-Of rose petals, she flung herself off of the Manticore, and cleaved it in 2, the now separated halves of the fading Grimm spilling torrents of smoky blood from its body as they fell to the ground below, the 2 faces of the Grimm letting out one last synchronous growl, before its eyes went dead, and it finally fell silent.

Ruby, meanwhile, began to dart hither and thither towards the ground below as she looked across the forest, spotting oppressive towers of smoking ice, fields of blue-to-orange fires that were enveloping trees whole, patches of thin fused silica across still glowing hot mats of grounds, skirmishes and firefights between scattered pockets of initiates and cultists, and-

{BOOM}

There, in the distance. Her eyes narrowed, and zoomed in-

Zoomed in? When could her eyes do that? She had always had good eyesight, thanks to her years of experience with a sniper rifle, but... Zooming in her eyes like an optical scope? That was a new one.

Was that... Was this a side effect to what Baobhan Sith had done to her? Activating her silver eyes, or awakening them or whatever... Was this something to do with them?

Around her arms, silver electricity danced for just a second.

-On a specific clash between her fellow initiates and these cultists. It was a larger battle, with more and more fighters from both sides being drawn to the fight and joining in by the second. Soon, the fight began to evolve into something else, and Ruby narrowed her eyes to see...

There she was. Thank you, new optical zooming eyes for letting her see who was in the middle of that fight.

Yang, battling against a pair of twins, and...

Jaune Arc, and several others, fighting desperately against an army of cultists, several other fighters, and...

Her?

Herself?

How was that... How was that possible?

Was that Summer Rose? Was that her mother attacking-

No, that couldn't be possible. That wasn't possible. Even if the corpse that Baobhan had wasn't actually 'Summer Roses', there was no way that her mother would willingly side with a cult of psychopathic murderers-

 _Would she?_ went the traitorous voice in her head.

To her horror, she had no answer to that.

Narrowing her eyes once more, she scanned the surroundings of the battlefield far away, and saw that they were near a large ravine, and were cutting away the trees near a larger section of ruins that stretched over the ravine itself. The trees around them were burning and being cut down, extending the side of the battlefield towards the ravine.

With her semblance, it would only take her a few minutes to get there.

Hooking her scythe around a tree and slamming her feet down onto a roaming Beserker Grimm's neck, killing it with a satisfying-

{SNAP}

-Ruby burst into a cloud of rose petals, and made her way to the warzone.

* * *

Baobhan looked down to the cleaved Manticore as it slammed into the ground, dissipating into smoke as soon as it hit the ground.

"Well then... A setback, to be sure... But a minor one."

She smiled. She wasn't even disappointed.

"Oh well. This was to be expected, after all."

She patted the black coffin next to her, not at all bothered by the chaos of the Emerald Forest before her. Summer Rose's corpse was, of course, unresponsive.

"Come along now, Summer. Like Ruby said, we have places to be."

And in a flash of electricity, they were both gone.

* * *

Ever since he had been (For lack of a better term) Born into the Arc family, Jaune had been told stories about Crocea Mors, and the legacy that accompanied it.

According to the legends of the Arcs, the sword that would one day be known as Crocea Mors was forged all the way back to the Dark Times of Remnant, making it more than 10,000 years old, and possibly even older than any well known recorder of history itself.

(He mused to himself about how much mankind had evolved ever since then, and not just in the cultural sense for humanity Faunus, but also the biological sense as well. According to those legends, humanity and Faunus had remained mostly unchanged in the biological sense, but Jaune couldn't stomach that as the truth, especially since so much of Remnant's past had been lost to the Grimm, with hardly any reliable records left. Had humanity had 4 arms at a certain point in time? Had they had 3 eyes? Just 1? Sharpened talons for fingers? Were the reversionist professors and scholars right in that the Faunus themselves are actually a further evolution of humanity itself, and are the next stage of evolution for mankind as a whole?

So many questions, so little answers...)

Back in the Dark Times, Crocea Mors had been forged out of pure magics itself (Aura? A semblance?), And had been used to slay the reapers of death (Grimm?) And the cults that worshipped them, allowing life to survive and thrive once more. The first Arc, Joan of Arc, had been born with the blade in her hand, and became the first unified of Remnant, forging the first kingdoms under her guidance, bringing about the end of the Dark Times, and beginning the Golden Age of Remnant.

From there, the stories of the Arcs would grow and size and grandeur, from slaying monsters in the conflict known as the Dragon War between Chyndradess, the Champion, and Beirdos, the Eternal, forging the House of d'Arc alongside the House of Beacon, House of Shelter, House of Haven, House of Shade, and the many other Great Houses of the old kingdoms, forging the Golden Empire alongside the Faunus, braving the fall of the old empires, reforming the new kingdoms alongside the actual people known as Vale, Vacuo, Mantle, and Mistral, breaking the back of the kingdoms of Mantle and Mistral, fighting against bandits and slavers during the Faunus Rights Revolution, and then, to the now, where it had been sitting above the fireplace at the Arc family estate...

Until he took it for himself when he ran away to Beacon.

And now, here he was, trying to do his family's ancestors (And the people that he had failed) Proud as he was forced down onto the ground and used his sword as a blocking bar against a rabid Sinful, before slicing at it's jaw, cutting its cheeks in half and mutilating its tendons, blood splattering onto his face as he screwed it up in disgust and kneed the mad thing in its gut, winding it and allowing him to throw it off, before jumping up and slicing his sword at the armoured chest of a nearby Adherent cultist, just as an icy explosion sounded off nearby, though not close enough for him to be caught in its blast radius as he picked up the gun that he had dropped onto the floor when the Sinful had jumped in, only for Pyrrha-

"Look out!"

-To pull him to the side via a black shadow over his armour- Probably her semblance. Telepathy, maybe?- As a red tendril slammed into the ground where he had been standing, whilst Pyrrha herself threw her shield into the neck of one of the hulking Wardens of Faith, throwing it off kilter for a second as Pyrrha pulled another cultist- One of the large Templars- Into the chest of the Warden via her semblance, throwing them down to the ground as a pair of initiates unloaded onto the head of the Templar, cracking the top of its helmet and killing the thing.

(Jaune didn't feel too bad about its death. He should, but... He didn't.)

More and more initiates had been joining in on the battle against the cultists, turning the entire field around them into a burning mat of glowing hot ash commingled with piles of snow and towers of ice as flakes of both frost and fire filled the air around them, choking everyone as they did their best to survive as the trees died and burned all around them, increasing the size of the battlefield as initiate and cultist danced between stumps and withered trees, some of them tearing them out of the ground and using them as clubs, whilst others sparred with guns, swords, and even their bare fists.

Up above, the giant warship that the Cult of Silver was obviously using as its Forward Operating Base began to drift to one side of the Emerald Forest. Oh, what were they up to, now?

Nearby, he could see the ginger jock from before with a flanged mace in his hand, the boy in question slamming it down into the head of a Sinful, cracking its skull open before he flung it to the side and into the shield of a Deacon, and then fired off an explosive shot into the armoured head of said Deacon, superheating it and leaving the cultist crying out in pain from the metal-on-skin contact, before the jock slammed his mace into the cultist's head, and sent him down into the ground, the jock letting out a victorious cheer, before turning his attention to one of the Templar's nearby.

Well, he wasn't paying anymore attention to Jaune, at least.

Next to the jock, the girl from yesterday-

He remembered seeing this girl before, with the long black trench coat and cargo trousers, with the black hair tied into a ponytail and bright blue eyes, when they got off the airship and he had been puking his guts out and had called the airship the heathen death tube. Moderately better times.

-Fired off 2 black pistols into the crowd of cultists, kneecapping 2 of them through the joints in their armour, before sheathing her guns and letting a pair of knives fall out of her sleeves, slicing them through the electronics of one of the Templars, overloading its liquid nitrogen tanks, before kicking the cultist into a group of other cultists, and letting the liquid nitrogen explode, some of them collapsing to the ground from not just the cold, but also the cryogenic burns as it seeped between their armour and into their skin.

Jaune did his best to drown out their screams.

"Goddammit!" nearby, Yang cried out in frustration as the 2 black haired twins continued to throw rounds of ice and physical blows at her, keeping her on her toes as a pair of Deacon cultists nearby herded a-

_What the hell was that thing?!_

**_…_ **

Summer, for the first time in his life, was silent.

-Herded a 15 foot tall, black and white, bear-like monster (Just like the giant bird and the wolf Grimm from before) That looked less like a Grimm and more like a giant corpse, walking upright, missing its lower jaw with sharpened talons for teeth guttering out, a massive gash running down its body and spilling its intestines out, as spikes of ice jutted from its back like a hedgehog, and a pair of glowing silver eyes where the bone mask on its head should be.

A Grimm with silver eyes... That couldn't be coincidental.

"How the hell did a Cult get a Husk?!" Jaune heard one initiate yell out over the carnage, and raised an eyebrow in surprise. 'Husks'? Was that a common type of Grimm? Was Grimm with silver eyes a common thing to see? Jaune didn't know, but at the moment, he really didn't care.

Nearby, a pack of what looked like a horde of Grimm were coming in. Upright Hyena like creatures with 4 eyes, sharpened bone plating covering their bodies, long blades for claws, thin hind legs sprinting them along, and long, spiked locks spilling from the backs of their heads as they ran and lashed them around.

"Aw, for fuck's sake! We've got Dreadlocks to dead with, now!?" one initiate yelled out. So these Grimm were called Dreadlocks? Good to know.

Jaune scowled to himself, as he pulled his rifle up, doing his best to mind the recoil, as the horde of Grimm approached them, and-

The Husk Grimm swung its arm, let out a string of ice shards coated with polluted silver energy, and killed every singe Dreadlock in the horde.

W... What?

With a roar, the Husk Grimm then glowed a dull silver, and pounded its foot into the ground with an equally dull-

{THUD}

-And within seconds, the fading corpses of the Dreadlock Grimm began to move and writhe in place, howling and screaming as their eyes shot open and began to shine silver, before they all began to get up once more, pulling themselves off of the spikes of ice that had pierced through them, leaving gaping holes covered in black blood in their bodies, as they howled at the same time as spikes of ice and some form of ugly red dust began to grow out of their bodies, before they all limped forward and joined in on the fray, fighting for...

Fighting for the Cult against the initiates.

What was going on?

"Husks can revive dead Grimm."

Jaune jumped in place as the girl in the trench coat and with the pistols suddenly appeared next to him, firing off her 2 pistols into one of the Adherent cultists near him, and continued on.

"They're Grimm necromancers: They can revive dead Grimm and place them under their will via a hive mind commanded by the lead Husk. As long as the lead Husk lives, the dead Grimm under its control are functionally immortal."

She gave him a side glance.

"I'm Nana Shaula, by the way."

"Er, Jaune. Jaune Arc."

After shooting a Cultist in the neck, she smiled at him, "I gathered," before jumping over one of the undead Dreadlock Grimm and kicking it into another Cultist, "We need a plan."

"Yes, I also ga- Ah!" Jaune yelped as one of the zombie Dreadlocks swiped at his armour, knocking him back, only for a Bishop-

{BANG}

{SQUELCH}

-Got off a shot that went right through his right shoulder, spraying out blood and bone fragments as he-

"AUGH!"

-Finally collapsed to the floor, panting and reeling in pain as the bloody bandage that he had wrapped around his head finally slipped off and fell into the burnt and frozen floor below, allowing the blood to finally seep down his head.

His shoulder had been dislocated and pulled back into place.

He had been bleeding from the side of his head when he had been brought to the ground, so much so that it had soaked his sleeve.

He was already tired from running so much from the fake-Ruby.

The skin on the back of his body and limbs had been frozen solid and then broken.

And now he had been shot in the shoulder and knocked onto the ground.

He was in incredible pain, he had lost quite a bit of blood, and was exhausted from running and fighting so much already.

Oh god, he'd had enough for today. He really just wanted to go to bed right-

"Is this all that you can truly offer us, Orion?"

At the sound of that hated name, Jaune forced himself to get back up to his feet, and-

"Ah, there we are. There's that determination that we know you have."

-Stare down the other twin pair, the gree-haired Aspects of Amusement, Lamia and Lilith.

"Oh, don't give us that look, Orion."

"This is all for your own good, after all."

"Shut up," Jaune growled at them. For a moment, he was surprised at how... Genuinely sad they seemed to hear him say that, but he didn't let that stop him as he gritted through the pain, clamping his teeth down so hard that they might draw blood, before he pulled out his Crocea Mors, wheeled it back, and-

{BANG}

-A bright blue shot flew from one of the troop carriers up above, and went right through his right thigh, tearing apart his skin and leaving a gaping wound that carved out part of his outer leg, leaving it spewing blood onto the floor and he collapsed and cried out in pain.

* * *

Jaracas, the Aspect of Forgiveness, lowered his custom made sniper rifle, and readjusted the glowing red optical scope where his left eye had once been (Thank goodness that they had Cihuateteo with them to rebuilt the entire left side of his head, otherwise he would've been killed by his gaping wounds), And then looked at the rest of the Aspects with him, "Orion's down. Got him in the leg."

"He dead?"

"No."

"Good. I'd hate him if he died from just that."

Jaracas chuckled, "It'll take a lot more than that to keep him down," he cracked his head, and then looked to them, "Lamia, Lilith, Alter, and Baobhan Sith are already down there, doing their thing. Can't say the same for Jiang Shi, though Are you guys going to get stuck in down there?"

Hsi-Hsue-Kue, the Aspect of Pride, laughed underneath his hulking black and red armour, and primed his blue flame cannon.

Kasha, the Aspect of Serenity, pulled a portable radio with him as his 4 sharp silver eyes blinked, and scratched his long talons and arm blades over his black metal body, the spikes on his back almost stretching up to the ceiling.

Draugr, the Aspect of Interest, held tightly onto the leash of Upyr, the Aspect of Joy, her almost nude body held under a long, fluttering cape, whilst the young Upyr began to salivate at the thought of fresh new blood supplies.

At the back, Cihuateteo, the Aspect of Awe just kept his expression plain and emotionless as he tended and tinkered with his machines.

Hsi-Hsue-Kue finished laughing, and smiled underneath his helmet, "Hell yeah, we are."

* * *

"And there he goes."

"Down for the count."

Jaune let out a cry of pain as blood continued to leak from his thigh, whilst the battle around him continued to rage on more and more, growing more and more desperate by the second. Gods, he was covered in his own blood now. He was bloody, he was tired, he was in pain, and he was weak. He was weak because he couldn't fight like the others. He couldn't fight back like the others. He couldn't do anything like the others.

_Get up. Dammit, get up! Don't be a wimp! A little- Augh, this hurts, but a little pain never hurt anyone, did it? So get up, Jaune. Get up!_

"We should help him, sister."

"Yes, we should do just that."

He could sense the 2 twins approaching him with hopeful grabbing hands, looking to touch him and take him and hurt him with whatever it was that they had planned.

He wouldn't be having any of that.

_GET UP AND FIGHT!_

With a roar, he screamed through the pain, pulled himself up onto his feet, lifted his sword above his head, and before either of the green-haired twins could react-

{SLICE}

-It was probably the adrenaline running through his body, but on any other day, he would feel absolutely horrible about trying to kill someone.

But, at the moment, he was tired, he was stressed out, he was high on adrenaline, and was absolutely done with everything that had happened throughout the day, and it had only just reached the afternoon as well (He thought).

So, he could be forgiven for bringing his sword down like a cleaver into the head of the Lamia twin, cutting her head in half, lengthways, and cutting it down all the way to her chest.

It took until Lamia's warm blood splattered all other him for Jaune to realise what he had just done, and his mouth began to splutter and mutter to himself in horror at what he had just done.

"No... No no no no no no no no… I didn't... I didn't mean to... I-I didn't- I didn't mean to I didn't mean to I didn't mean to I didn't mean to..."

Next to him, Lilith looked like she was about to say something- She didn't even looked bothered by her twin's death- But before she could, she was cut off by-

"Get away from him!"

{BANG BANG BANGBANGBANG}

-A series of bullets that went right through her body, puncturing her in her head and chest and limbs and splattering the ground beneath her with blood and gore as she crumpled to the floor.

Jaune's breathing quickened as Nana ran up to his side and planted another bullet into Lilith's corpse. She looked like she said something to him, but he couldn't hear her as the world around him began to darken and his heartbeat began to increase and everything seemed to get colder and hotter at the same time and-

"Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah..."

The 2 sides of Lamia's head began to laugh.

"Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!"

Down below, the shot up corpse of Lilith began to laugh as well.

""HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!""

Suddenly, veins, arteries, cords of flesh, and stems from her brain began to worm their way out of Lilith's body and connect to each other like spiderweb patterns. The blood that was once in her body began to lift off of every surface that it had fallen on and flew back into her body, her eyes darting from side to side independently from each other as her body began to grow and piece itself together like a colony of worms melding with each other.

With one single motion, as the 2 halves of her body stitched themselves back together, her hands wrapped around the blade of Crocea Mors, and pulled it straight out of her chest.

Down below, as the holes in Lilith's body began to fill up with fresh flesh and blood, the bullets that were once in her body were pushed out like maggots from rotten fruit.

"Stab us."

"Slice us."

"Shoot us."

"Tear us into pieces."

"Carve us in 2."

"And Rip us limb from limb."

"It doesn't matter how many times you try."

"Because you will never kill us."

"For we are the Cult of Silver."

"And we are immortal."

With a single punch to the gut, Lamia sent Jaune flying across the battlefield, winding him, and leaving him bleeding and out of breath on the ground below.

Everything hurt, everything was weak, everything was going quiet, and everything was turning red. That might just be from all of the blood in his eyes, though.

Gods, he really wanted to sleep right now...

Sleep...

That'd be nice...

He didn't notice the red tendril wrapping around his legs until it had lifted him up into the air and brought him face to face with the thing that wore Ruby's face, the both of them high up in the air now as the fighting continued on around them.

And with it, it said to him in such an emotionless voice:

**"I love you."**

"...Shut up."

**"I love you I love you I love You I love you."**

"Shut up."

**"I love you I love you I love you... Orion."**

"SHUT UP!"

How did this... Thing... Even know his old name? he hadn't gone by that in years. He had done so much to bury what he had done in the past, and now these people were ready to dig it out of the grave again.

Dammit, who were these people? What was this thing? Why was it so obsessed with him?

Jaune wished he knew.

Nearby, new challengers joined the battlefield below. One of them was a hulking giant in black and red armour, covered in silver lights and wielding a cannon that shot hot blue flames. Another was a thing that looked like a demonic robot, with spikes guttering up from its back, 4 deep silver pits for eyes, and a jagged maw of a mouth. One of them, an almost nude girl in a bikini, cloak, and ripped jeans shorts, was holding onto a younger boy in his tween years, in smart clothing whilst having a mouth that stretched too far up to their ears and was filled with shredded and gnashing teeth. The last of them was a shorter boy with an emotionless expression and covered in electronics and tools, tapping onto an electronic tablet, as nearby, a pair of 4 legged silver droids taller than a double decker bus, and a grouping of tall bipedal walkers with yellow spotlights, swivel chin cannons, and boxy missile launchers on the sides of their heads, stood to attention, before turning their gaze towards the initiates below, and firing in a synchronous pattern with each other, turning the grounds into an even bigger cloud of fire and ash and ice than it already was before.

Jaune looked at the monster in Ruby's (Summer's?) Form and growled, "Why are you doing all of this?! Why are you so obsessed with me? I don't even- I don't even know you!"

The fake-Ruby tilted its head to the side-

"You will."

-And then, several red tendrils reached up to him, preparing to wrap themselves around his body and do god knows what.

But before they could do that-

[SLICE}

-A bronze shield cut through the tendril that was holding him up, and before he crashed into the ground, a pair of strong arms wrapped themselves around him, and retrieved their shield via a black shadow across their hands. Nearby, the blonde-haired, red-eyed girl that had become their familiar ran to their side, and planted their dagger through the throat of another cultst.

"Pyrrha?..."

The girl in question didn't respond to the weakened question, as she simply looked at the battlefield around them, and saw how much they were loosing against the Cult.

And so, she did the only thing that she could do.

"Run!" she called out, "Just run!"

And they all followed suit.

* * *

By the time that Ruby had reached the side of the ravine, everything had devolved into pandemonium.

Explosions of fire and ice rang off all around her. Bodies of initiates and cultists covered the floor, dyeing the world an ugly crimson shade of red. Shattered carcasses of machines were scattered across the arena, as well as blackened craters of smoke and ash. Body parts were scattered across the playing field as initiates continued to flee from the burning remains of the Emerald Forest and the cultists that pursued them like vultures after their prey.

It was madness. It was horror.

Was it war?

No, this was a one-sided slaughter.

Ruby weaved her way through the battlefield, dodging projectiles and explosions through rose petal burst after rose petal burst as she zigzagged across the battlefield, jumping over waves of ice as-

"Augh!"

"What the hell?!"

-Initiates were being frozen in place all around her, ice growing all around their bodies, but not freezing their skin itself. It looked like they'd stopped trying to kill them and were now working to capture everyone as she worked to get herself to Yang and-

And do what?

What was she trying to do?

She had no idea.

All that she knew was that she had to get to her sister, and fast.

She'd figure out the rest on the way.

Nearby, another cell of initiates was coated and covered in a block of ice, all the way up to their heads, weighing their arms and legs down, keeping them in place, and keeping them from accessing their weapons and breaking through. Ruby tried to move to help them, but a nearby group of cultists- 10 feet tall and with giant cannisters on their back- Fired streams of liquid nitrogen towards her, forcing her to constantly dispel and reform herself into petal cloud after petal cloud as more and more initiates were held down by streams of ice and cold.

A silver stream of light shot out and stopped her from reaching another trapped group of initiates, and up above, a giant walker shot out a series of missiles towards her, exploding all around her and throwing her to the side, before-

"Yang!"

* * *

"Ruby!?"

Jaune forced himself to open his eyes as the chill in the air finally got to him, spotting Yang and- Ruby! It was Ruby. The actual Ruby, not the fake monster in Nora's body that was chasing them. That was good, that was good.

He flinched at the sight of Ruby. That was less good.

More explosions sounded off around them. Madness. Despair. Another horde of Grimm was cut down by a Husk, only to be revived as its undead slaves. Initiates were being sealed away- Up to their heads- In shards and blocks of smoky ice. Blood was frozen into the ground. The clear blue sky was filtered by pillars of smoke and ash and flame.

Everything had gone to hell.

"Ruby, where have you-" Yang was stopped by Ruby quickly wrapping her arms around her elder sister and pressing her head against her chest. Yang returned the hug just as quickly, and then continued with her frantic questioning, "Where have you been? Where did that woman take you?!"

"Baobhan- She took me to the top of that cliff, and- Oh god..." Jaune saw Ruby shiver, and against Yang's chest, she then went, "Yang, she has... They've got mum's body... They've got mum's body..."

 _…What?_ Jaune thought to himself, _What did she say?_

**_…_ ** **_?_ **

"...What? What are you-"

"Guys, we really need to move!" Anima called out from nearby, as around them, more and more initiates were trapped within the ice, "If we don't then-"

A wave of ice overcame Anima and her boys, Cardin, Nana, Weiss, and Blake, completely covering them and restricting their movements.

-"Ack, goddammit!"

"Run!" Nana called out to what was left of the initiates, "Save yourselves!"

But it was too late.

Around them, the cultists, now newly motivated by the presence of their leaders, continued to throw wave after wave of ice at them. The black haired twins darted between initiate after initiate, tagging them and covering them in chain-like ice. Blue fire corralled initiates into packs, only to be trapped by the frost growing at their legs. One by one, in quick succession, they all began to fall.

Nearby, Ren was caught in a wave of ice, and swore as it reached up to his neck. Pyrrha was forced to drop Jaune as she was peppered by ice blast after ice blast, doing her best to dodge them before she was overwhelmed and forced onto the floor by the weight of ice on top of her. The girl that seemed to serve as her familiar continued to fight on for as long as she could to protect her mistress, but was eventually felled as well, coated in ice and frozen to the ground as she sprouted words in a language that Jaune somehow did and did not know at the same time.

Nearby, Ruby grabbed Yang and tried to pull her along, but was stopped by a cloud of frost hitting them, freezing the upper layers of their skin and leaving them writhing on the floor in pain, before the ice finally got to them and covered them completely. Yang was able to break out at first, thanks to her semblance, but she was eventually overwhelmed by the sheer volume of ice blasts that peppered her, eventually bringing her down.

All that was left now was Jaune, as he forced himself up onto his feet, and looked around the now quiet battlefield, as whispers of frost and flakes of snow began to fall all around him. The world seemed silent, so much so that even the crickets had stopped their clicking songs, and the chirping bird calls in the distance had stopped, as if time itself was frozen solid, much like the world around him.

There was a crackle beneath him, and his feet began to grow cold. So cold that it felt like his feet were going to turn into glass and crack off. He looked down, and saw ice and frost travelling up his legs in spiderweb arms and rivers. He tried to move, but it was too late. They had arrested him in place. Spines of ice began to grow out like tree branches and attached themselves to his wrists, forcing them down to his waist as the ice began to seep into his wounds and cuts like water, invading the insides of his body and worming their way through his veins and around his bones as the frost continued to grow and grow into a block that wept into the very pours of his body and kept him down, growing all the way up to his neck and worming its way up his cheeks in rivers and streams until...

They stopped. Their task was gone.

He couldn't move.

He couldn't escape.

None of them could.

They were all at the cold mercy of the cultists.

Said cultists- Adherents, Sinfuls, Deacons, Bishops, Templars, and Wardens of Faith- Began to circle all around them, weaving between frozen initiates as their droids and walkers stomped and thundered all around them. In the air, the 3 troop carriers from before began to lower themselves down towards the ground as the fighter craft from before soared overhead, the massive warship in the sky still hanging around all the way at the other end of the forest.

The Aspects themselves gathered and looked around at their new prey, satisfied smiles on their faces as they honed in on Jaune's group, and grinned cheekily.

The fake-Ruby just stared at Jaune, saying nothing, doing nothing, as still as a statue.

And then, a flash of white electricity and light flared off in front of them, and there stood a woman with long white hair and eyelashes, deep silver eyes, pale skin like snow, and dressed in a black, white, and gold dress covered in silver roses, with a rose necklace around her neck and a silver wolf pendant in her hair. Behind her, a rectangular black box floated above the ground ominously.

The cobra of a woman smiled at Ruby, and then said, "Do you feel better now, Ruby?"

"..."

"Did you get all of that out of your system?"

"..."

Ruby just glared at the woman.

"Good, good good good good," the woman tilted her head to the side as she said this, and then went, "You know, our offer is still available to you-"

Before Ruby could say anything, the woman threw her arms outwards, and then spun herself around, to address the rest of the initiates around her.

"-And to all of you as well! Our offer is open for all of you to take and accept! To join us! To build with us! To carve out of the muck and the mud a bright new future! Think about it: Have we not shown you our power? Have we not shown your our abilities? The powers of silver and ice that we wield to make you yield? They are not like semblances! They are not hereditary! They are given! They can be given!"

At the gasps of the initiates around her, silver crystals and flickers of ice grew and hovered above the fingertips of the woman's outstretched hands, and glowed an ethereal silver.

"Think about it: What would you possibly be able to do against the Grimm on your own? How can you possibly stand against them in the future, when you could be so easily felled now? In the darkness that you live in- The darkness of the corrupt kingdoms, the darkness of the corrupt Huntsman system- There will only be failure. Only defeat. Only destruction. Only death."

Her smile grew and was all teeth, and the silver shards of ice glistened and glowed like miniature stars.

"But, where the darkness destroys, the light creates. With this power, no longer would you be slaves to ideologies that do not belong to you. No longer will you be tempered by weakness. No longer will you have to watch the ones you love be killed and lost. In the light, there is only one truth: Life."

Then, the cobra of a woman turned her head, and narrowed her eyes on the group surrounding Jaune. Approaching them, 7 of the crystals shot out from her hands, and began to hover right in front of their faces.

"Does that no seem nice? Does that not seem enticing? Would the greatest gladiator this side of Remnant not wish for the power to never loose again?"

The red-haired tiger winced, and her familiar glared at the white-haired woman.

"Would a poor orphan not wish to save every single village out in the world, and to slay that which has taken everything from them?"

The black-haired sloth narrowed his eyes and bared his own teeth. The woman didn't pay it any attention.

"Would a former member of the White Fang wish to truly bring peace to Remnant, and end the horrors between our 2 races?"

The onyx-haired cat's eyes widened. As many ugly stares and eyes turned to her, the shiver that she felt wasn't just from the cold.

"Would a heiress not want to end the corruption of the state by herself, and finally take back what is rightfully hers?"

The white-haired fox blinked, and looked away. There was no answer from her.

"Would a girl, deprived of her good mother, not wish to finally take vengeance on her poor one?"

The blonde-haired dragon's eyes turned red, but her flaming hair did little to melt the ice beneath her. It was as if it was growing itself around her.

"Would you not wish, Ruby Rose, to make sure that no other children would ever loose their mothers ever again?"

The black-to-red-haired crow's eyes darted from side to side in a mixture of both veiled anger and fear. There was a glow behind those eyes, and light began to flicker around her trapped arms.

And then, the woman turned to the lion, and tilted her head to the other side.

"And you... Orion..."

Jaune's eyes widened once more. How many... How many people knew about his old name?

"Would you not like to seek redemption?"

How many people knew about his old life?

"Would you not like to make up for that which you have lost?"

What he went through?

"Would you not like to make up for that which you have destroyed?"

What he did?

"Would you, Jaune Arc, not like to redeem the name Orion, and wear it once more?"

What he wanted most of all?

The woman smiled, and then pushed herself away, "In the end, it doesn't matter how long it takes. In the end, you will all join us," a sigh, and then, "After all, all that you all need is... A little push..."

"You're insane," someone muttered. Jaune didn't know who.

"No," was the woman's reply, "I am sane, as are the rest of us in the Cult of Silver. We have finally seen past the veil of insanity that blinds mankind, and have seen the light that purifies us..."

And then, she turned to Jaune.

"And now, so shall you."

Then, the fake-Ruby began to float towards the 2 of them, ever emotionless, ever impassive and without a look of weakness or strength on her face. Nothingness. Pure nothingness. Red tendrils began to wisp and flick off of the crimson fog that flowed off of her legs and waist as she approached, like a wraith-like wolf, silent, and with killing intent.

Was it?

It was impossible to know.

"This," the woman calmly gestured to the red mass that was once Nora, "Is Ruby Alter."

To the side, Ruby's eyes widened in shock. She didn't know how to react to the thing that wore her name and face.

"Please," the woman stepped to the side, "Show him the light, and let him become the first of a new generation."

'Ruby Alter' didn't even look to the woman as she placed herself right in front of Jaune, and raised a single hand, a finger pointing out and reaching towards his forehead.

Nearby, the monster with 4 eyes and a black metal body began to speak into his portable microphone as miniature camera drones began to fly down and float around the quietened battlefield. What it was saying escaped him, for he wasn't really paying much attention to it.

His mind was focused on other things.

Jaune tried to move his head away from the approaching grasp of the Alter's hand, but he couldn't move. His entire body was encased in ice, unable to move, unable to free himself as the red mass slowly began to approach him.

Within that red mass, he could already feel the mental corruption that leeched off of the Alter's body like a mist. Already, tendrils of madness and corruption were beginning to leak and worm their ways into his mind, paving their ways into his memories, wrapping over his brain, and

Images flashed before his mind.

Gold and blue objects.

A city coloured entirely in silver.

A city within a forest within a forest.

Pools of light mixing with pools of dark.

And then...

War.

War in the heavens.

War in reality.

War in unreality.

War involving the gods.

War involving themselves.

War.

Death.

Suffering.

Blood.

Violence.

Reality.

Unreality.

The unravelling of souls.

Darkness.

Light.

Kings.

Queens.

Torture.

Horror.

Horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror horror

_**JAUNE.** _

It was not just Summer who said that.

It was a chorus of voices.

_Summer... What... Where have you been? What's... What's going on?_

**_JAUNE..._ **

_…_ _Yes?_

**_…TRUST ME._ **

_What?_

Silence. It was as if time itself had stopped and stalled all around him.

_**FOR IT IS IN PASSING THAT WE ACHIEVE WISDOM** _

His chest began to glow. It was small at first-

**_AND IT IS IN WISDOM WE SAVE THOSE WE LOVE_ **

-But then began to brighten more and more.

_**THROUGH THE DARKNESS, BE THE LANTERN THAT GUIDES THEM THROUGH THE DARKNESS** _

Ruby Alter was the first to notice, and suddenly, she flew backwards to safety.

_**THROUGH THE COLD, BE THE FIRE THAT GRANTS THOSE YOU LOVE WARMTH** _

The Aspects began to step back as well at the display, the woman's eyes widening as she realised what was going on.

**_IF THEY ARE WITHOUT A HOME, BE THAT WHICH GRANTS THEM SHELTER_ **

"No... It can't be..." muttered the woman as the light within Jaune began to grow more and more, as the ice around him began to crack and shatter into flickers and pieces.

_**IF THEY ARE WITHOUT COMPANY, BE THAT WHICH GRANTS THEM FAMILY** _

"No one can... It's too soon... He can't be able to..."

_**AND IF THEY ARE WITHOUT HOPE, BE THAT WHICH BRINGS THEM HOPE** _

"S-Shoot him!"

_**LOST WITHOUT PURPOSE, AND NOW WITH PURPOSE FOUND ONCE MORE** _

"SHOOT HIM NOW!"

_**I RELEASE YOUR SOUL** _

The light grew and grew even more, ready to burst.

_**AND WITH YOU EVER STEP OF THE WAY** _

The cultists raised their guns-

_**SAVE THEE IN NEED** _

-But it was too late.

The light expanded outwards, and, like a balloon...

Burst.

_**{KA-BOOM!}** _

A mixture of silver and white light exploded outwards, like a second sun, shattering and melting every trace of ice around him in a bright flash of silver and white fire.

The fire exploded and continued to expand outwards. Torrents and missiles of white light shattered every trace of imprisoning ice outwards, turning them into melting snow under the heat of his aura. Waves of initiates collapsed to the ground, free from their restraints, but then healed and reinvigorated by the healing light that lanced out and covered them, sheltering and covering them like a blanket left next to an open fireplace.

Jaune felt the aura wash over him, licking at his wounds and fatigue like a fire, and sealing the cracks and holes in his body like an ocean of water. His tiredness and fatigue melted away, and shed and malted itself, like a caterpillar breaking out of its shell and spreading its butterfly wings, ready to fly and float with the wind. Pulling himself onto his feet, he could feel his aura flowing against the ground, and allowing life to grow once more. Grass stretched out of the ground where aura took hold. Rows of flowers grew and blossomed all in one. Trees began to heal their wounds. The snow and cold began to melt away under the heat of the son of the sun.

Around him, a white cloak of pure aura formed, a golden rose symbol, accented by 2 equally golden crescents, forming on its back as it flapped in the wind. In his left hand, Crocea Mors glowed and flamed white and silver. In his right hand, the rifle that he had scavenged began to glow white and blue.

Around him, his fellow initiates began to pick themselves off of the ground and ready themselves. Their fatigue melted away. Their wounds sealed up. Their hearts and minds were ready for war.

Underneath his new cloak of white light, he looked at the woman who presented herself as the leader of the Cult of Silver. Her mouth was wide open, her eyes shaking at the sight of him.

She tried to kill him.

It was only fair that he return the favour.

With a crack of his neck, he looked at her, and said one simple line:

"You think yourself a god? I think myself a killer of gods."

The woman growled. Her hands covered themselves in ice as silver light began to flow from her eyes.

"You want a war, Orion?"

Both sides readied themselves for was.

"THEN LET THERE BE WAR!"

The counterattack had begun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Que I May Fall*
> 
> Yes, indeed, the counterattack has begun, and Jaune finally got his aura unlocked! Hoorays for days!
> 
> Now then, I hope you all enjoyed, and I hope that this year will be better than the last. We can only hope, right?
> 
> Anyways, with all of that said and done, leave a review, follow and favourite, and I shall see you all next time!
> 
> Titanmaster117 out!


	11. Beacon part 9: Counterattack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The initiates begin their counterattack, and a new phase in the battle begins...
> 
> A.K.A. Everyone's a badass today!

**Main theme:** _[Death Hymn by Lucas King](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmTN8wu2AM8)  
_ **Arc theme:** _[Rise from the Destiny 2 soundtrack](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=intmEEVphig)  
_ **Theme:** [_Die by Jeff Williams and Casey Lee Williams_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP0gJpZUF1Y)

* * *

"Well now it's getting good."

Emerald gave Mercury a side glance and a raised eyebrow as they both sat on their apartment sofa together, watching the TV in front of them as it displayed the chaos of the Emerald Forest, and the announcement of the Cult of Silver to the world, "I thought that that whole death and destruction thing that was being shown was already good for you?"

"Yeah, but now it's better," he shrugged, "What's the point of getting into a fight if they can't fight back at least a little bit? Makes kicking them back into the dirt so much more fun," the silver-haired boy leaned back into the sofa with his hands behind his head, and chuckled, "You know that Cinder would agree."

Emerald didn't respond, but she knew that Mercury was right about one thing (Even a broken clock can be right twice a day, as the old adage goes): Cinder would definitely agree with him, though she wouldn't be as constantly aggravating as the boy next to her was. She would almost whisper her words in that silky smooth tone of hers, like sickly sweet sugar on the tongue, and she would speak on how it was best to give their enemies just that little bit of hope, before stomping it into the ground and watching them writhe in despair, her hypnotising songlike voice creating a melody of power and authority as-

"You're doing that thing again."

"What thing?"

"That thing where you dream about Cinder actually paying you any time of mind, getting into your pants and riding you raw."

Emerald growled at him and punched him in the arm. He had put his aura up just a second earlier though, so it was not nearly as satisfying as she would've liked it to be.

She wound never question Cinder's orders- Never in a million years- But everyday she had to ask herself why they were keeping this annoyingly aggravating waste of space around, when it would just be so much easier to take him into a back alley and put a bullet in the back of his skull. However, Cinder would always just say that they needed him...

For what?

Cinder had never actually explained whatever plan that she had to them. Whenever they or Roman (Yet another annoyingly aggravating waste of space that she had to share air with) Had asked, all that she had ever replied with was 'Don't think: Obey'. A nice sentiment, surely, but for all of her loyalty to Cinder, Emerald would still at least like to know what exactly she was getting into, if only for her own sake.

That way, if she knew what all of this was for, then she could at least see where Mercury was in all of this, and how inconvenient it would be for them to take him into the previously mentioned back alley and kill him with the previously mentioned bullet.

If it wasn't too inconvenient, of course.

Mercury rolled his arm for no reason other than a show of superiority (He constantly liked to do things like that), And laughed once more, "You know what your problem is, Em?"

"What?"

"You're too high-strung," Mercury answered, prodding her both mentally with his words, and physically with his poker finger, "I swear, you're way too eager to please Cinder for your own good. It's cramping your style."

"Cinder gave me everything," Emerald shot back with a glare, "Have us everything. I mean," she threw her arms out wide at the apartment that they shared together, thanks to Cinder 'Asking' Roman to rent it out for them, "Look at this place. 5 star hotel, with a hot tub, flat screen TV, and a minifridge next to our actual fridge! Do you really think that you'd be able to pay for all of this with an assassins salary?"

"Oh, I don't know," he smiled smugly, "There're a lot of important, well paying people out there who'd want other, equally important, people dead," he shrugged, "I think I'd be fine."

"Up yours."

"Hah, you wish," he went to pause the TV, but found that the live feed wasn't pausing, "Huh," he went, before shrugging it off and getting up, "I'm going to go piss. Let me know if anything happens."

Emerald cringed, "Too much information, Merc."

"Eh, just though I'd let you know."

As he walked off to the bathroom, Emerald swore to herself that one of these days, she was going to tear off his shiny metal legs and shove them so far up his ass, he'd be shitting toes for weeks.

She looked back to the images on the screen, and watched the growing battle unfold before her. Whatever this cult group was planning, they were really skewering their PR, that's for sure. Proclaiming yourself the saviour of the human race, then immediately attacking a school trip, killing scores of people, and then broadcasting it for all of the world to see? Ridiculous.

Then again, maybe the cult didn't care. Maybe this was just a demonstration of their power.

And besides, she had to admit: Whoever had been talking on the radio was certainly charismatic enough to stir up certain feelings within her, and the information that they had released to support at least some of their claims definitely made them seem all the more reliable.

And they were throwing shade onto the ruling classes, so that automatically got points from her.

Still though, if they were this charismatic and truthful with their claims- As well as that sudden interview with the old man Ozpin- Then those things that they said about whoever the hell Ozma (Obvious connection to Ozpin...) And Salem, the supposed queen of the Grimm... It was enough of a dangling thread to get the conspiracy theorists riled up and fearmongering about the end of times and whatnot.

And certainly, there would be a flock of people who would be desperate enough to listen to these people. The homeless, the orphans, the people with nowhere left to go... How many villages and settlements out in the frontier would crave sanctuary so much that they would willingly join this Cult of Silver?

Emerald would know. She was once part of this flock of sheep, after all.

Still though, this 'Queen of the Grimm' business... And Cinder could control a beetle Grimm, couldn't she?

…

She shook it off, and chastised herself for such a ridiculous notion.

A queen of the Grimm?

Now that was too much.

Rolling her eyes at herself, she moved to get up from the sofa herself, and do something else that was much better with her time-

Like tracking down the people who had shot down Cinder 2 nights ago. Then again, these people might just be the ones that had done that, couldn't they?

-Before sparing one last look at the TV, and then seeing...

Someone who she had not seen in a decade.

Emeralds eyes widened, and she jumped towards the TV screen and scanned her eyes over the image shown to her.

There, leading the charge against the cult, was a boy in a cloak made out of pure aura itself.

A boy with golden blond hair, and eyes as blue as sapphire.

A boy who she had not seen since they confronted each other outside a burning building, with one of them holding a burning torch.

"Orion?"

* * *

With a roll across the floor, Jaune dodged a wave of ice, and then fired off a series of rounds from his rifle. Strange, the recoil was no longer bothering him. However, he gave the thought no pause as he noticed a wave of ice coming right before him, and panicked.

Shit! My shield can't block all of it-

**_YOU NEED A SHIELD?_ **

_Yeah._

**_THEN MAKE ONE._ **

This gave Jaune only a slight moment of pause, before he focused himself, and then forced his aura into a ball in his hands, _Okay, make a shield, make a shield, make a damned shield-_

 _White aura danced around his hands, a_ nd as the ice reached him-

_-Make a shield, dammit!_

-He threw hands out, and his aura-

{VOMPF}

-Expanded out into a glowing white, transparent bubble shield of aura that the ice grew around, covering the dome completely in a sheet of frost, before-

{BOOM}

-His bubble shield of aura exploded outwards, shattering all of the ice around him as he looked down at his hands in shock, and muttered, "How... How did I do that?"

_**YOUR AURA IS YOUR SHIELD. IT IS UP TO YOU TO CHOOSE HOW TO CRAFT THAT SHIELD.** _

"Is this... Is this my semblance?"

_**NO. THAT IS STILL LOCKED AWAY.** _

"Oh..."

_**BUT...** _

"But?"

_**THERE IS MORE THAT WE HAVE FOR YOU.** _

Jaune blinked at what was said to him by the voices inside his head (Voices that he had resented for so long since his birth- His real birth), Before remembering just where he was, and then spotting one of the bipedal walkers up in the air aiming the square missile batteries on its sides aiming down at him, its yellow spotlight of an eye flashing, before-

{THWOM THWOM THWOM THOWM THWOM THWOM THWOM THOWM THWOM THWOM THWOM THOWM THWOM THWOM THWOM THOWM}

-It fired off a torrent of missiles, all of them flying straight towards him as he-

"SHIT!"

-Threw his hands out once more and pushed all of his aura into his bubble shield, the shield turning completely white as the missiles hit the ground around him and against his shield and-

{BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM}

-Lit everything up into blossoming flowers of orange light and fire and smoke, enveloping everything in black and orange, everything falling silent for a few seconds, until the smoke dissipated, and-

{VOMPF}

-There was Jaune, his aura bubble shield disintegrating and going back into himself as he waved himself from side to side slightly in exhaustion, before shaking his head and refocusing himself, pulling his rifle to his hand as he cracked his neck and eyed the cult forces before him.

_**YOU CAN'T TAKE THEM ON ALONE. NOT AN ARMY.** _

_I know._

Luckily for them, he had an army at his back.

Takes one to beat one, after all.

"Hey guys!" Jaune yelled back to the initiates behind him, "I can't fight them by myself! Care to give me a helping hand?!"

"You heard him, everyone!" he heard Nana Shaula call out as she cocked her guns, before cracking her neck and going, "Everyone, charge!"

And thus, the battle was on once more.

Only this time it was the initiates who, well, held the initiative.

Cannons to the left of them, cannons to the right of them, cannons in front of them volleyed and thundered as they strode into the valley of death, explosions and gunfire sounded off around them as silver light and ice broke the field around them and was interrupted by bursts of fire and flame. Heat met chill. Hot met cold and clashed to make lightning. Good met evil. Darkness met light.

The Hunter met the Cultist, and their clash was legendary.

Swords clashed together. Shootouts covered the entire battlefield. The world became a giant melee as blasts of energy and heat and cold as flashes of red and blue and white and silver threatened to turn them all as blind as bats.

Jaune ducked behind cover, and noticed Pyrrha grabbing hold of the walker that had shot at him with her semblance, a black glow covering them as she closed her hands-

{SKIRSH}

-And crumpled it up into a ball of twisted metal, before, with a great yell of her voice, she threw her hands to the side, and-

{VWOOSH}

-Tossed the ball of metal to the side and slamming it into one of the 4 legged droid walkers nearby, the metal ball inflating for a second as it crashed to the ground, before-

{KA-BOOM}

-Exploding into a great big fireball that consumed both walker and droid, sending flaming shards of metal across the battlefield, and blanketing the ravine and arena in smoke and ash as the cult was covered in a thick screen of smoke, blinding them and forcing them to switch their helmets to infrared, but too late to react as-

{BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG}

-Torrents of gunfire flew into the cultists. Their armour protected them for the most part, but many of them were left dead, and the rest of them were disorientated and confused, before the smoke cleared and they too regained themselves, aiming their own guns and-

{BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG}

-Letting loose waves of gunfire and ice, beginning the siege proper between the 2 sides.

Spotting a wave of cultists trying to move around their side and flank them, Jaune then called out, "Someone gets to our side! We've got a big mess of these guys trying to surround us!"

"I'm on it!" one initiate called out- A boy in black and blue armour with dual pistols at his side, who then turned to a throng of initiates behind him and yelled out, "You heard him, lads! Let's go bash these cultist fuckers' heads in!" and with a roar of approval, they charged forth to meet the cultists at their sides head on.

Meanwhile, Jaune pointed to the other flank of the cultists, where a line of the cultists Wardens of Faith, bipedal walkers and 4 legged droids began to pepper and bombard the initiate lines with mortar strikes and missiles bombardments, "Anyone with heavy weapons and explosives, get some artillery on those lines!"

Nearby, several initiates cheered, and one called out, "Roger that!" and as soon as the order was given, overhead, scores of grenades and missiles and bombs of all sorts flew in trails of green and red and blue and orange, falling onto the lines of the cultists' heavy weapons in balls of fire and smoke, sending shockwaves of wind and vibrations of deafening sound through the world around them.

"Anima!"

"Yeah?!" Anima called out from her side as she-

{BAM BAM BAM BAM}

-Unloaded round after round from her rifle into the lines of cultists before her, sparing only a few moments to reload.

"You and your boys- Ack!" Jaune stopped to roll out of the way and unload a few rounds of his own into the legs of a charging Sinful, and then slamming the butt of his gun into another, "You and your boys start assembling a crew to flank the cultists on their other side, and start pouring fire into their flanks! If they want to put us to siege, then it's only fair that we return the favour!"

"How many do I need?!"

"As many as it will take!"

Anima smiled viciously, "Got it!" and after transforming into her beast form to bite into the neck of a Templar cultist, forcing it to the ground, before leaping back into her human form and stomping her feet into the heads of 2 Sinfuls, using them as a springboard to jump back into the air and land right next to Dove, Russel, and Sky, leading them off and gathering more initiates for their favour.

He looked around the battlefield, and realised that they were standing out in the open, completely exposed. They needed cover. Luckily there were some potholes and craters in the ground that some of the initiates were loosing to shield themselves, but unfortunately it wasn't enough.

An idea came to mind.

"Pyrrha!"

"Yes, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked as, with a tired sigh, she blocked an incoming blast with her shield, and then fired off a round into the armoured chest of a cultist, knocking him down to the ground.

"Your semblance is levitation, right?"

"Um, no, it's- I've never actually revealed this to many people- It's polarity."

"What?"

"I can manipulate metal through their magnetism."

"What?"

"I can levitate metal."

"Oh."

Another explosion interrupted them, and a surge of ice forced them to dodge out of the way as Jaune looked over the battlefield, and then to the recently shredded piles of metal from droids and walkers nearby, and then smiled.

Looking back to Pyrrha, he then asked, "You think you can make us some cover out of those scraps over there?"

Pyrrha blinked, and then, "How much?"

"Enough for us to hunker down, and stay mobile at the same time. I'd rather we didn't get bogged down by these guys."

Pyrrha looked over to the flaming wrecks of twisted metal, and then back to Jaune-

"Got it."

-Before cracking her neck, and then holding her hands out, that now familiar black glow flowing over them, as the still hot metal nearby-

{SKIRCH}

{KKRRTSSHHH}

-Began to twist and turn in place, right before-

{SKKKEEEERRRRRTTTTTCCCCCHHHHHH}

-Torrents of sheets and shards of metal were ripped off of their hinges and bolts, and collected right over their heads, a steady black aura over them.

And then, at what must've been the speed of sound-

{FLUNK FLUNK FLUNK FLUNK FLUNK}

-Every single piece of metal sliced and wedged themselves into the ground, creating rows and rows of cover and metal shields, ranging from big to small as blasts of ice grew around the metal, and said metal deflected rounds and rounds of bullets, letting then bounce off and pile onto the floor as droves of initiates took to the shields that had now been provided for them, cheering with new and renewed vigour as they fired back between the metal shards and fields within their new trenches and firing lines.

Jaune smiled once more. The battle was going in their favour now, but they still had to deal with the cultists that had woven between their lines and were still charging them, "Everyone at the front of line, start focusing fire on the targets closest to you! Second line, start giving them covering fire! Back line, start focusing on their heavy units and armour, and get some fire onto their air forces! Everyone else, give some covering fire to our flanking units, pick your targets, and take them down!"

Suddenly, Nana appeared next to him, firing off her pistols into the cult's numbers, before asking, "Jaune!?"

"Yeah?!" he replied over the gunfire and explosions.

"What exactly is the plan here?!"

_**YEAH JAUNE, WHAT'S YOUR PLAN RIGHT NOW?** _

…

They thought he had a plan.

Heh.

Who has time to think about a plan these days?

All of this?

He was honestly just making it up as he went along.

**_AH..._ **

**_THE MARKS OF A TRUE LEADER._ **

_Ah, shut up, stop teasing me..._

_**NO, IT'S TRUE.** _

_**HOW MANY TIMES DO YOU THINK THAT A LEADER HAS FACED THE CHALLENGE OF ACTION WITHOUT A STRATEGY?** _

_**HOW MANY TIMES DO YOU THINK A LEADER IS FORCED TO JUST 'WING IT' ON A BATTLEFIELD?** _

_**IF THERE IS ONE ASPECT THAT UNIFIES ALL GOOD LEADERS, IT IS THE ABILITY TO ADAPT AND IMPROVISE ON THE SPOT.** _

_**ADAPT AND OVERCOME, AS THEY SAY.** _

_**WITH THAT-** _

_**AW, STOP STANDING, BIG BRO, AND START KICKING BAD GUY BUTT!** _

Jaune blinked, and then smiled. He was more than happy to oblige.

"The plan, Nana?" he began, taking a moment to reload his gun, before finishing with, "The plan is to survive."

More cannons sounded off around them. Nearby, Pyrrha leant against one of the walls of metal as her blonde-haired, red eyed familiar sliced through the legs of a nearby Sinful, before slamming her feet against the thing's chest and throwing it into another Sinful, right before a Deacon tried to slam its shield into her, right before she pulled it out of his hands and threw it into him like a frisbee, before throwing a haymaker with her armoured left fist into the face of another Sinful, breaking its jaw and spewing blood as it fell to the ground.

Jaune blinked, and realised that their lines were still covered and polluted by cultist fighters, and with a crack of his neck, he yelled out, "Everyone who doesn't have a gun, start focusing on the cultists still within our ranks! Everyone else, open fire, and unleash hell!"

* * *

Ruby was more than happy to oblige with that order.

{BANG}

Went the barrel of her Crescent Rose in a quick blossom of orange, yellow, and white light, and-

{CHING}

-Went the spend round being ejected from the chamber, as the bullet flew all the way across the battlefield, and landed in the chest of one of the undead Dreadlock Grimm with a satisfying-

{CRUNCH}

-And-

{SPLATTER}

-Forcing it down onto the ground with a black splatter of blood.

Nailed it.

Of course, the thing that was once a Grimm didn't let a simple bullet hole in its chest stop it as it threw itself back up onto its feet and let out a gurgled howl. Any Grimm that had been reborn under the control of a Husk was functionally immortal, and could only be put to rest once the specific Husk controlling them was destroyed.

Thankfully, this was hardly ever a problem. Husks were Great Grimm, and as such, were exceedingly rare. And besides, Husks could only take over recently killed Grimm, as long as they still had some presence within the world before fading into nothingness upon death.

But there were multiple Husk Grimm here. Multiple Great Grimm. A dozen's worth, at least.

And they were all following the orders of the Cult of Silver.

How? How was that possible? Grimm are the natural enemies of mankind. Grimm are destruction incarnate. The average Grimm would go out of its way just to hunt down and kill any and every human and Faunus that it could find. The idea that any Grimm would, willingly or not, follow the orders of any human or Faunus was just pure madness.

And yet, she had always learnt that Husk Grimm were considered... Unnatural, when compared to their fellows. She had never personally encountered a Husk before today, and had only ever heard of them through her studies at Signal Academy, but from what she had been taught, other Grimm seemed to constantly be steering clear of the Husks whenever they were in the vicinity. Sometimes they were even known to do battle with each other. It was like the regular Grimm were afraid of the Husks, or hated them, or something else entirely.

Ruby was starting to suspect that it was that 'Something else entirely' part.

Because, as she narrowed her eyes and zoomed them in on one of the Husks, she was finally beginning to make the connection as to why...

 _Silver eyes_ , Ruby's own eyes widened, _They've got silver eyes..._

Grimm with the power of the silver eyes... Or at least being controlled by the Cult's 'Silver-Eyed Warriors'...

Ruby shook her head clear of these thoughts, Focus on the fight. Worry about that stuff later, and then narrowed her sights down onto another one of the Undead Grimm barrelling right towards them.

{BANG}

Right on target.

The shot sent the Grimm flying back, and into a crowd of its fellows, knocking them all down to the ground. Ruby, meanwhile, gave a quick smile at a job well done as she looked between the sheets of metal that she was using as cover.

"Kid, what the hell are you doing?! Stop wasting ammo on the zombie Grimm!" one of the initiates nearby, however, took umbrage with her efforts, and then went, "At the very least, start shooting at the cultists instead of the Grimm! They're the bigger threat, after all!"

Ruby frowned, but did as she was told and moved her sights towards the cultists that were beginning to retreat behind the lines of undead Grimm, using them as cover against the initiates' attacks. Through her sights, she observed a wounded cultist with a bloody side, as another cultist ran up to hi- Her, actually. Her helmet was off and revealed a feminine face with a cute pair of brown cat ears on her head- Her, and applied some sort of pink biofoam to her side.

Ruby inspected this new type of cultist with the biofoam. It was a cultist that was more machine than man, with silver and blue robes with a red cross at the back of it, with silver metal arms and legs, a metal gasmask with glowing orange optics, and a large plate of silver and blue metal on his chest with blinking silver lights and a glowing red cross built into it. Built into his arms were vats of biofoam connected to sharpened needles and tubes that ran across his entire body, and all connected to a string of pink and clay coloured biofoam patches on his back, hidden underneath his cloak.

Ruby mused at the nature of this new cultist variant- What seemed to be the doctors and medics of the Cult of Silver, as well as... What? Splicers, Bioengineers? Something else?- But then shook her head free of distractions, took aim at another nearby cultist, and...

She hesitated.

Ruby had always blanched at the idea of taking another person's life. Incapacitating them, sure, she could do that. She did that on the night of the robbery, and she could sure as heck to that here.

But actually taking a life? Pulling the trigger? Snuffing out a life like it were nothing but a candleflame?

Could Ruby do it? Could she kill someone and look at their bloodied corpse and go 'Yes, I killed you, because it was you or me, and I chose me'?

And what about that person's family? Did they have a family? Did they have friends? Did they have a spouse and children? None at all? A mother? A father? Would they be remembered, or were they just one in a statistic?

Ruby spared a glance at Yang's bloodied hand, and realised that her older sister must've been asking herself that exact same question.

Then again, did her mother face this same dilemma? Did she once have to choose between the life or death of another?

Was that how she died?

…

…

…

…

Uncle Qrow had always hammered it into her that, once she became a Huntress, she would one day have to choose wherever to take a life or spare a life. One day, she was...

She was going to have to kill someone...

…

…

…

…

She couldn't do it.

Dammit, she was useless here! She could fight and kill Grimm willy nilly, but couldn't handle the death of another person, especially at her own hands! She needed to help, but at this point, she didn't know how.

"Hold the line!" behind her, Jaune- Where had all of that sudden confidence come from?- Yelled out to the lines of initiates around them, "Start wedging them into a chokepoint, and catch them in a crossfire! They'll have to contend with fire from every direction if we do!"

Huh, a decent plan, actually. If they were caught in a chokepoint, then they would have little room to maneuverer, and then picked off without little cover from their overlapping fields of fire. It seemed clear to her that Jaune was just making this up as he went along, but still... Good improvisation on his part.

Now, if only Ruby could-

A soft whistling entered her ears, which then grew louder, and louder, and louder, until...

Ruby looked up.

"GET DOWN!"

The fighter craft from before soared down from overhead, and rained hot fire onto them as it flew back into the air. Explosions and cries of pain and fear sounded off around her as the fighter completed its flyby and ascended back into the sky, whirling around in the air and turning back around to strafe the initiates once again.

"E-Everyone, disperse and get to cover!" Jaune called out as the fighter strafed their position once more with a loud-

{FWOOSH}

-In the air, followed by the-

{RATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA}

-Of its guns, hot lead impacting with the ground and kicking up dirt and bodies as the dead trees swayed and moved in the winds that it left behind.

Ruby looked towards the lines of cultists, and realised that they were regaining momentum. If that thing kept strafing them like that, then the cultists were going to swarm their position in a massive rush all over again, and completely overwhelm them.

Ruby's eyes widened. She knew what she had to do.

"Weiss!" she called out, and in a flash of petals, she was by the heiress' side, watching her unleash a line of glowing blue hardlight projectiles from her glyphs into a squad of approaching cultists, before asking, "Weiss, what does-"

"Ack! Ruby! When did you get here?!" Weiss went before she pulled Ruby and herself behind a sheet of metal as silver and blue fire continued to pour itself into their positions.

"I just- Never mind, what's your aura count?"

"Why do you-" Weiss cut herself off, before then answering with, "My aura's fully charged now, why?"

"What kind of glyphs can you summon?"

Weiss raised an eyebrow, no doubt wondering why she was asking, before going, "Well, it depends on the type of dust that I use."

"Well, what kind of dust do you still have? Hardlight? Gravity? Fire? Electricity?"

"Almost every type, yes. Why?"

Nearby, the fighter strafed them again, and fired its cannons into the ground, pushing a group of initiates out into the open, only for them to be picked off by the cultists snipers and heavy guns, mowed down like sheep in a butcher's shop.

Ruby pointed her finger into the sky and let it follow after the fighter in the sky, "That thing up in the sky is going to keep strafing our positions and pushing us out into the open if we don't take it out," she looked at Weiss, "And that's what we're going to do."

Weiss blinked, "What?"

"Can your glyphs modify a bullet?"

She blinked again, "Into what?"

"Into a projectile with the explosive ordinance of a rocket launcher, and with the power of a railgun."

"...Oh."

"I'll take that as a yes."

It surprised Ruby as to how serious she was acting at the moment. However, right now, lives were at stake, and she had to put any reservations out of the way and focus on the task at hand. Now was seriously not the time for silliness.

Ruby peaked her head out of cover, and then spotted Jaune nearby, taking a moment to duck her head down to avoid a sniper rifle round from catching her in the head, before yelling out to him, "Jaune, I've got a plan to take down that fighter in the air!" she reloaded her sniper rifle with a loud-

{CHLING}

"Give me some covering fire!"

Jaune looked up to the fighter in the air, back down to her, and then nodded his head without question, "Do whatever you have to do!" before looking around to the initiates around him, and yelled, "You heard her! Let's give her some cover!"

At the sounds of fresh gunfire and explosions began to fill her ears in the warzone around her, Ruby grabbed Weiss' arm, and began to pull her into a sprint between the shards and sheets of dilapidated metal, moving so fast that rose petals were beginning to fly off of her body, before pausing within a deep, still smoking crater as the fighter strafed them once more, before looking at Weiss, and finally explaining her plan.

Upon explaining her plan, Weiss blinked for a thrice time, and then-

"You're insane!"

"Do you have a better idea?"

"..."

-She agreed.

As the fighter flew back into the air, Ruby and Weiss continued their sprint across the constantly detonating battlefield around them, picking up speed as they continued to run and run, right until they got to the end of the battlefield and-

"Now Weiss!"

-Jumped up into the air, right before-

{VOMP}

-2 pathways of black glyphs spawned right underneath them, curving up into the air, right into the optimum position if they could get their timing right.

Ruby and Weiss began to run across these glyphs, and right up into the air, as tracer rounds, missile blasts, and pillars of ice began to fly past them and detonate in the sky, though not as much as they could be, thanks to the covering fire that Jaune and the initiates were providing them below.

It was still a lot of firepower being directed at them though, as Ruby and Weiss bobbed and weaved through the air, explosions ringing off around them and clouding their vision with fire and smoke, dirtying them even more than they were before. But that didn't stop either of them as they flipped and danced through the air, Ruby first with her sniper rifle, taking aim at the missiles flying at them, and-

{BANG BANG BANG BANG}

-Shooting down said missiles one by one, detonating them in the air into great plumes of fire and ash as each bullet collided with one of the giant flaming projectiles, whilst behind her, Weiss had to alienate between keeping the glyphs up, dodging the blasts around her, and then juggling vials and samples of dust in her hands, as Ruby looked out into the sky, and-

The fighter in the air had changed its target from the initiates below, and to the pair of them in the sky.

Bingo. The bait was set. Now all was left was to reel it in.

"Ruby!" Weiss began, "We're running out of hardlight dust!" and indeed she was, as the hardlight glyphs beneath them began to flicker and fade with each step that they took, growing fainter and fainter as they began to reach the end of the road.

Ruby, however, did her best to not show her concern, "When I say so, concentrate the last of the dust into a single glyph, and be ready to spawn the rest!"

Weiss hesitantly nodded, and then ducked to avoid another incoming column of fire, as the fighter continued to fly closer and closer to them, narrowing its guns towards them both as its engines continued to grow louder and louder, until-

"Weiss, now!"

-The 2 of them stopped in the middle of the air as all of the other hardlight glyphs around them dissolved into nothingness, all the while Ruby aimed down the sights of her Crescent Rose, her newfound optical zoom on her eyeballs narrowing down her sight even more as she trained them on the fighter heading straight for them, on one of the central engines strapped to the sides of the ship, and then-

{VOMP VOMP VOMP VOMP}

A series of tiny glyphs formed around the barrel of Crescent Rose, each one holding a different type of dust, each one with a specific purpose. Gravity and wind to give the bullet speeds that not even the firing mechanisms of Crescent Rose could reach, electricity to give the bullet an extra electromagnetic punch, and fire and combustion to give it more stopping power. All of these dusts combined together would give a single bullet from a sniper rifle the stopping power of a railgun and the explosive power of a rocket launcher, all from the tiny package of a single 50. calibre bullet from one of the best snipers this side of Vale.

A truly deadly combination indeed.

-She pulled the trigger.

{BANG}

Went the bullet as it left the chamber and interfaced with the glyphs right at the end of the barrel. Combining all of the different types of dust together, the bullet then zoomed faster than a rocket ship, and sliced its way through the side engine of the fighter craft with a shredding-

{KA-BOOM}

-The side engine on the ship exploded into a giant fireball, taking off the entirety of the wing and sending it twirling down into the ground below with a trail of smoke and fire following behind it. Metal shards and pieces flung through the air as-

"DUCK!"

-The 2 initiates had to duck on the black platform underneath them as the 2 halves of the twirling fighter zoomed both over and beneath them in a shroud of fire, just as-

{STAB}

-A flying shard of metal broke through her aura and shot itself right through Ruby's thigh like a bullet.

The girl in question screamed in pain as blood oozed and squirted out of her leg like a waterfall, her knee buckling under the pain as she lost her grip-

{SLIP}

"RUBY!"

-And slipped off of the black glyph beneath her no longer.

She began to fall to the ground, blood trailing from her legs and falling through the air like a pillar of rain as she flailed her arms about and looked from side to side, trying to figure out her landing strategy, whilst also-

Ack! Yep. That still hurt.

With a bloodying leg, she pulled her Crescent Rose towards her, and began to formulate a plan in her head, just as-

{BUCKLE}

{SKIRCH}

What the...

Underneath her, what was left of the ruined metal that was not being used as cover began to twist and turn once more, almost like it was all undulating and mutilating itself into something more, as it all began to rip apart and reform underneath a black aura, reshaping itself like an arm as it reached up to her, until its shape became clear to her.

A slide. A ramp. The metal had forged itself into a ramp.

Slamming down hard onto the thin sheet of metal as shots rang out all around her, just as soon as the 2 halves of the ship slammed into the ground with a synchronous-

{KA-BOOM}

-Ruby began to slide down the ramp at what must've been the speed of a bullet, blood trailing behind her as she screamed out in pain from it, before gritting her teeth and recomposing herself just as the ramp began to level out, before coming to a stop at the bottom and flinging her off, right into the arms of-

{CRASH}

"OOF!"

-Well, less arms, and more body.

Ruby blinked, and got herself off of whoever had stopped her with their body, looking around the battlefield just to see Pyrrha catching Weiss as she gracefully fell to the world below.

Underneath her, someone muttered, "N-Nice one, Pyrrha..." and Ruby looked down, and realised that the person who had 'Caught' her was-

"Jaune!?"

The winded boy in a cloak of pure aura just gave a tired smile, "W-Who else would it be?"

* * *

"This is becoming... Problematic."

Baobhan watched as the Cult of Silver's fighter craft was sliced in 2 and crashed into the ground below in a fiery twin explosion, all the while their forces and the initiates below continued to duke it out via guns and bayonets and grenades, explosions ringing off as bodies were felled left and right.

"We were doing so well, and we would've turned all of the initiates to our side, and then presented them to the world once more, renewed and eager for our cause..."

This unexpected resistance had effectively shut down those plans, at least for the most part. They still had all of the initiates that they had previously captured, all tucked away in the troop carriers above, but still...

"It's not enough."

That plan was effectively snubbed, now, and the sudden resistance and throwback of the initiates against their forces had damaged their credibility as a serious contender on the global stage.

They had effectively been humiliated, and even if people realised that the information that they had released was true, they would doubt it due to how soundly this particular group of initiates were beating them back.

…

Oh well.

"A mere setback... Nothing more."

This was all still salvageable.

After all, by speaking out against the corrupt oligarchies that ruled Remnant, they had already won. By underlining the corruption within Atlas, Mistral, Vale, and the SDC (Vacuo was Vacuo, and the... Troublesome elements within the kingdom would play their hand in the Cult's favour soon enough), They had shown their hand, and the cards had played into their favour. Already, through her scroll, she was receiving reports from Cult friendly agents that many people had now turned away from their TVs and were beginning to protest in the streets. Across the 4 kingdoms she was getting words of pockets of rioting taking place, with SDC shops being looted and ransacked, and even the White Fang (Animals that they were, giving good Faunus a bad name. Oh, how Baobhan loathed the group) Were spearheading new propaganda campaigns with the evidence provided by the Cult as evidence against Atlas, serving as the basis for a renewed recruitment effort on their part.

Cute.

But it wouldn't save them.

In the meantime, she suspected that once Ozpin and his cronies arrived and finished up here (As they knew that he would be arriving in the forest soon), He and the rest of the councils would be running damage control soon enough, trying to cover up all of their dirty dealings and corruption, in order to quell new Grimm incursions on their territories, and to stop legitimate police investigations into their businesses.

The Cult wouldn't be having that.

They owned most of the police in Vale, after all, as well as agents in every other kingdom.

In the meantime, she received word of Grimm attacks on Frontier settlements beginning to increase, just as they predicted. With a simple flick across her scroll, she sent a message out to dozens of contacts. Soon, Cult of Silver friendly militias, Hunters, and even agents within Atlas and Providence, would move in to protect these villages and settlements, and would then begin to subtly spread pro-Cult propaganda and so on. Meanwhile, in all of the major Huntsman academies, their own agents would begin their own propaganda campaigns as well, and would begin to antagonise the next generation of Hunters against the current establishments of power.

This little setback within the Emerald Forest... It was just that. A setback. The same as Ruby declining their offer.

For now.

Still though, there was one major flaw in their current plans...

Orion.

Orion, whom went by the name of 'Jaune Arc'.

Orion, who had been granted access to the Silver Kingdom.

…

"It's too soon. It's much too soon."

…

This was a problem.

However, it was not one that couldn't soon be fixed.

Her reaction to his aura awakening, as well as his possession of the link to the Silver Kingdom... That had been a moment of weakness. She had panicked. Jiang Shi would be furious at her, she knew that well.

She would make up for this mistake in the future.

And soon, Orion would see the truth that they knew all too well.

He would join them.

They all would.

Willingly or not.

The Silver Empire would have its Empress...

As well as its Emperor.

It was only a matter of time.

Speaking of time, it was time that they started packing up. Their work here was almost over now. All that they had to do was wait for Ozpin to show up, and that would be when they make their final impression.

Turning to the side, as she and the rest of her fellow Aspects continued to pelt silver light beams and ice blasts of all sorts at the initiates in the front (She refused to be labelled as an armchair general who didn't get her hands dirty like her fellows), Baobhan looked to Ruby Alter and asked, "Is that Nora Valkyries body that your possessing?" upon getting a nod from the woman, she then added, "Good. Now is the time for you to leave, then."

With another call through her scroll, the troop carrier near them began to lower itself to the ground, right in the ravine and next to the ancient ruins, still firing off rounds into the lines of initiates.

"Alter, get on the troop carrier, and head back to the warship," cranking her head to the side, she looked to her fellow Aspects, and said, "Lamia, Lilith, Draugr, Upyr, I want you to go with her too. Guard her. Make sure that none of Ozpin's goons get to her."

"You got it, sis!" Draugr nodded, as she pulled the leashed Upyr along, Lamia and Lilith trailing right behind her as they followed Ruby Alter towards the troop carrier, but not before Draugr called out to the twins that they had recruited from Junior's nightclub, "Come on, mamas! Let's go, let's go!"

"Ah, of course, my goddesses," Miltia curtsied before following them, whilst Melanie just nodded like an obedient little pet and went after her masters eagerly.

Baobhan smiled, looked up to the walkers still in the field, "HWPs, start sending out some rocket fire as cover. Husks, move to the front of our lines and get the hordes in position," and then back at the rest of the Aspects with her, and said, "Well then, shall we get stuck in?"

The sounds of agreement and encouragement were like music to her ears.

* * *

"Everyone on the right flank, start- Ow!" Jaune rubbed his stomach momentarily to stop the cramp from Ruby slamming into him from hurting so much, and then continued, "Start concentrating fire on the gap in their lines at your side! Separate them into 2, keep them from coordinating with each other, and pick them off one by one! Left flank, keep focusing on their surrounding forces! Back line, put more fire into their heavy weapons!"

"Roger that!" one of the initiates yelled out as a fresh stream of mortars and grenades flew out from behind them and slammed into the walkers and 4-legged droids with a rainbow of colourful fire, crackling and bursting into shards under the heat and force.

Jaune laughed with enthusiastic mirth in his voice, "Good job!" and then went, "Now change targets to their infantry lines, and start sowing chaos! Take out any leaders and authority figures, and leave them no room to organise!"

At the sounds of agreement, sniper rounds and grenade blasts began to fly out into the lines of cultist manpower before them, sending many of them flying and flailing in the air at the force of the explosions, as well as the back blast from them as the world before the lines of initiates were turned into a hellscape of smoke and ash and blankets of hot silica.

The initiates roared in triumph, and continued their barrage. Entire squads of cultists were decimated, and from the looks of it, their morale was dropping rapidly. Ice walls were being formed for cover, but they were being pounded by dozens of bullets and explosives, and eventually worn down and melted by the flames delivered to them by the initiates. Blankets of soot intermingled with fields of frost as the heat and chill began to commingle together to form a deep humidity, leaving the air wet and uncomfortable.

But that didn't bother the initiates as they continued to slam themselves into the cultist lines, forcing them further and further back from them. Snipers took out leadership figures within their lines. Explosive experts launched rockets into crowds of cultists that hadn't properly spaced out. Melee fighters without any kind of projectile weapons picked off the stragglers that hadn't been able to reach the main crowds.

Their counterattack was working. The cultists were falling.

The initiates were actually winning.

**_HEH._ **

_What?_

**_YOU. BEING A LEADER._ **

**_YOU'RE GOOD AT THIS._ **

_I'm not that good..._

**_TELL THAT TO EVERYONE ELSE._ **

**_YOU'RE A LOT BETTER THAN YOU GIVE YOURSELF CREDIT FOR._ **

_Yeah, well, I'll believe that when I..._

His eyes widened in fear.

"GET DOWN!"

Dozens of missiles were about to rain down on them.

Initiates screamed and dove themselves in cover as the horrifying whistling of the burning projectiles dove closer and closer towards them all.

"Get in my shield!" Jaune yelled out to the initiates around him as he pushed all of his aura into his hands, and then-

{VOMPF}

-Threw his hands out and formed the bright white bubble shield around him, over a dozen initiates- Including Ren, Ruby, the Schnee girl, Yang, Anima, Nana, Russel, Sky, Dove, a black-haired girl, Pyrrha, the ginger jock guy, and Pyrrha's familiar- Crowding into the bubble, just as-

{BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM}

-Dozens upon dozens of missiles slammed into the ground around them, blossoming and blooming like flowers of fire and smoke, polluting the air and turning much of the world around them into ash and soot, ripping metal plates of cover out of the ground and shredding much of what was left, decimating lines of initiates and disorganising the rest of them.

Even before the final missile had hit the ground, already dozens of initiates were scrambling to reorganise themselves and recover the momentum of their attack, picking out the wounded from the crowds and herding them away for recovery, whilst the bubble shield that had surrounding Jaune was willed away, and he looked around and surveyed the ruined world around him.

Just as the undead Dreadlock Grimm forced him down to the ground and bit its teeth into his arm.

Jaune screamed out in pain, "Mother-" before slamming his shield into its jaw, -FUCKER!" and breaking its neck as he threw it off, only for its neck-

{CRACK}

{CLICK}

{CRACKLE}

-To heal itself in a disgusting display of super healing, as it looked up at him and growled once more, blackened blood foaming from its mouth as it lunged back up-

"RAAAAAU- GUGH!

-Only for a bronze shield to slam into its side, and launch it across the battlefield flailing and screaming, whilst the shield found itself flying back into the arms of the bronze Amazonian right next to her.

"Thanks, Pyrrha," Jaune said, getting a nod from Pyrrha in return, as he looked once more to the battlefield before him, and went, "Now, what the hell was... Ah."

Husk Grimm. About a baker's dozen of them, their mutilated and ravaged bodies standing in a line before the cultists, shielding them from attack as their hordes of enslaved undead Grimm stood before them as well, howling and screeching, as if they were in pain. It was horrible to listen too. Behind them, walls of ice had been erected, shielding the cultists from attack as they recovered and healed themselves.

As the Husk Grimm began to send out their weak, yet still immortal hordes, Jaune then noticed the troop carrier from before, now hovering right next to the ruins built into the ravine nearby, allowing a few of the Aspects from before- Including the immortal twins- As well as...

The fake-Ruby. Ruby Alter. It was boarding that ship.

It was taking Nora with them.

"They're escaping!" the Schnee girl called out indignantly, "Those cowardly curs are trying to run!"

The black-haired girl rolled her eyes, "'Curs'. Who even says that anymore?"

"They're going to take Nora with them," Ren said in a panic.

"I know," Jaune simply stated, a look of renewed determination on his feet.

"We can't let that happen!"

"We're not going to."

As the troop carrier began to ascend into the sky, its living cargo now aboard, Pyrrha turned to Jaune and went, "But how? My semblance isn't strong enough to bring an airship that size!"

"Not to mention that even if you tried, all of the people that they've stuffed inside of that ship could be killed as well," Anima added in with.

Jaune looked to her in shock, "They've been kidnapping people?"

"They've been stuffing hundreds of initiates into those things ever since they got here. My boys and I were barely able to avoid one of their recovery squads when they were trying to capture us as well."

Jaune looked back up to the troop carrier, and clenched his fist, "That's it then: We need to bring down that airship, rescue everyone in there, free Nora from that Ruby Alter thing, and then-"

"And then what?" the ginger jock mockingly asked, "Run off with that thing?"

"And what about the Husk Grimm?" Yang asked with a raised eyebrow, "Those aren't regular Grimm: Those are Great Grimm. Even just one is almost impossible to take down by conventional means! You want to abandon us to those things?!"

Jaune shook his head, and then dryly said, "Nope. What I want to do is take control of that airship, ram it straight into the Husk Grimm, and shove them all the way down into that ravine there. They'll all be crushed to death by the momentum, the blunt force trauma, their own weight, and the sheer size and explosive power of the troop carrier as well. And once the Husks are dead, their undead armies will drop as well."

Everyone blinked, and fell into a shocked silence. Eventually, it was Nana who broke the silence as she then asked, "But how are we supposed to get up there? We've got no way to get back up into the sky!"

Jaune looked around, and then his eyes narrowed on one object in particular.

"Yeah we do."

"What do you mean?"

"I have an idea."

He paused, and took a deep breath.

"A very, very stupid idea."

_**…WHY DO YOU LOVE STUPID IDEAS? WHAT ABOUT SMART IDEAS? WHAT HAVE SMART IDEAS EVER DONE TO YOU?** _

_**APART FROM AVOID YOU.** _

_**HUSH, YOU.** _

* * *

Around them, the initiates were being flooded by undead Grimm.

Swords and steel met hordes of nightmarish monsters as their fight for survival continued on. Nearby, the Husk Grimm stood uninterested, sending the occasional ice attack into the crowds of initiates every now and then, but largely just standing off to the side, allowing their slaves and minions to do the work for them.

As the initiates began to flounder and falter, their morale dropping as it looked like the end was inevitable, a sudden voice cut through the air like a knife through butter:

"Don't worry, everyone! Our leader's got a plan!"

A few dared to look back, as they watched a small group of initiates- Jaune, Pyrrha, Ren, Nana, Ruby, and Yang- Crowd together near the back, right where the giant ramp of metal that she had made earlier was positioned, just as Pyrrha threw her hands out, and yelled:

"Everyone, be brave! We're going to take that airship up there, and use it against these monsters!"

Those whom listened dared to blink in disbelief. How? How were they planning to take an entire airship? Especially when it was still raining down fire onto them as it began to drift away towards the giant warship still in the sky. How were they going to accomplish that?

But then, Pyrrha's hands began to hum a steady black, and-

{CRACK}

{SHRED}

{CRINKLE}

{SKIRTSH}

-The metal around her began to twist and turn and rip itself apart, breaking off from whatever constructs, and coming together once more, wrapping around itself and forming what must've been a giant...

No way...

Around her, the metal creased and smoothed itself out, reshaping itself and coalescing, all to form-

"Just remember: Our leaders have not abandoned you! We will never abandon you! Never forget that!"

-A bullet. All of the metal in the surrounding area had been brought together and transformed to form a giant bullet.

A bullet with rungs built into it.

"Everyone on the Recovery Team, grab hold!" Jaune yelled out as he, Nana, Ren, Ruby, and Yang all took hold of one of the rungs that had been weaved and woven into the bullet, holding on for dear life, pushing their aura into their arms so that they wouldn't rip off from the sudden pressure and g-force.

A black aura once more formed around the giant metal projectile.

Pyrrha threw her arms back, her face scrunching up in concentration as she visibly strained her aura to pick up the giant bullet that she had crafted and put together.

5

4

3

2

1-

Nana looked at Jaune, "Hey... Are you doing okay?"

"Erm… I'm starting to have second thoughts."

"That implies that you were having a first thought."

"Good point... Hey, Nana?"

"Yeah?"

"In case I forget to say this later... Augh."

-Lift off.

With a roar of determination, Pyrrha threw her arms forward, and with all of her strength and aura-

{FWOOSH}

"AAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

-Threw the giant bullet threw the air, sending explosions of wind behind it, and sailing through the air like an arrowhead soaring through the heavens.

"LET GO WHEN I SAY SO!"

Jaune was barely able to yell this out over the buffeting winds and howls of air as they all held tightly to the rails and rungs that had been provided to them, their clothes and gear flapping in the winds behind them as the sheer force of the air against them threatening to tear their arms off from its socket, with only their aura keeping their limbs locked in place against the force of the winds.

"Wait for it..."

The troop carrier grew closer and closer.

"Wait for it..."

He could make out the green haired twins, the almost naked girl, the young vampiric boy on the leash, and the fake-Ruby standing on top of the airship, obviously wanting a clean view of the battle below.

"Wait..."

The bullet continued to sail through the sky, gradually loosing momentum as they sailed right underneath the troop carrier.

Right next to it.

Right past it.

Right above it.

"NOW!"

Down below, on the ground, the initiates were angst. The bullet had missed. Weren't they aiming to shoot it down? If not, then what was the point?

But then they remembered: No, it wasn't the point. The bullet was just the transport.

Now it was time for the cargo onboard to make their move.

The Recovery Team let go of the giant bullet sailing through the air, and began to fall to the ground. However, through careful manouvering- As well as some nudges from Ruby and her semblance- They careened down to the roof of the troop carrier, and-

{THUD}

{THUD}

{THUD}

{THUD}

{THUD}

-Slammed their feet into its hull.

"You know-"

The 4 Aspects stood still in shock, but the Ruby Alter monster remained ever emotionless.

"-Now that I see you up close... You're not as tough as I thought."

Opposing the Aspects, the Recovery Team- Ruby, Yang, Ren, and Nana strong- Aimed their weapons and cracked their nuckles.

And in front of them, their leader, Jaune Arc, folded his hands over his chest, and held a look on his face that screamed 2 defiant words:

'Bring it'.

"Now then... Shall we begin?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "You get a badass moment, and you get a badass moment! Everyone gets a badass moment!"
> 
> Yeah, this is now basically: Badass the Arc, part 1. Stay tuned for part 2 soon.
> 
> And before anyone say anything, yes, I got the inspiration for the bullet scene from Re:Zero. If anyone wants to know what I'm talking about, go check out Re:Zero. It's very much worth your time!
> 
> And also, shoutout to one of the best reaction fics on this site: Re:Zero Watching Him Die Again and Again, by mohamedasemabas. It is honestly one of the best reactions fics that you will ever read on this site.
> 
> But anyways, with all of that said and done, leave a review, favourite, follow, and I shall see you all next time!
> 
> Titanmaster117 out!


	12. Beacon part 10: As Above, So Below

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On the ground, and in the air, the battle of the Emerald Forest continues on...

**Main theme:** _[Death Hymn by Lucas King](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmTN8wu2AM8)  
_ **Arc theme:** _[Rise from the Destiny 2 soundtrack](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=intmEEVphig)_  
 **Theme:** [_I May Fall by Lamar Hall and Casey Lee Williams_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmOZL_0rj70)

* * *

{KA-BOOM}

Another explosion rippled through the air near her, and Pyrrha ignored it as-

"危ない！"

-She threw herself to the ground, avoiding the roaring charge of an undead Ursa, slicing her blade, Miló, through the neck of the zombie Grimm, only for its severed head to suddenly fly back onto its neck stump and reattach itself, its veins threading themselves like strings through its skin. Pyrrha had to resort to throwing her shield into the exposed guts of the Grimm just to get it away from her, tossing the creature across the battlefield and into another zombie Grimm that she could barely recognise the shape off, before pulling her shield back into her arm via the use of her semblance.

Thank goodness she had a high aura count. If it had been almost anyone else in her position, they might've burnt through all of their aura already.

Overhead, a string of red dust shards began to rain down on her, and Pyrrha rolled to the sides as-

{BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM}

-All of them exploded into shards and smoke as they hit the ground, creating a ripple effect of detonations all around them as fire and ash continued to spread like a domino effect, ripping up the ground and shredding everything around them, before finally falling silent.

Of course, that didn't end the battle itself. Far from it, it only seemed to escalate it. Bullets and blades continued to rain out and blossom into flowers of flame all around them as initiate met Husk thrall, slicing them apart only for them to regrow instantly.

A mortal crowd, vs an immortal horde.

It was a loosing battle, and they all knew it.

"新しい計画が必要です," went her- Her familiar? The blonde-haired, red-eyed young girl that had spawned from her belly, now polishing her dagger that seemed to hum like it was made from pure aura, "なぜなら、こんなふうに戦い続けるなら、ハスクに殺してもらうのも同じだから。"

"I know that we need a new plan!" Pyrrha shot back with, still utterly confused as to how she was able to understand this girl despite the fact that she was speaking an entirely different language that she had never heard before, as well as the fact that she had somehow just, you know, spawned from her stomach and all that.

"妹-"

"Why are you calling me 'Little sister'?" Pyrrha asked, before shaking her head, and going, "What's your name?"

"ハリティ。ハリティニコス。"

"'Hariti Nikos'? I don't..." she shook her head again. Now was not the time.

"野戦でこれらのものと戦っても無駄だ," 'Hariti began as she sliced her dagger blade into the skull of an undead Dreadlock, throwing it to the side as she continued, "ハスク・グリムが生きている限り、我々は決してこれらを殺さない。"

"I know," Pyrrha went as she looked to the back of the crowds of undead Grimm up ahead, and focused herself on the towering walking corpses that were the Husk Grimm, lording themselves over their zombie hordes and firing sniper rounds of dust into the crowd of initiates as they scrambled for life and cover.

Behind them, their masters, the Cult of Silver, hid themselves behind walls of smoky ice, recovering and healing themselves as their cold walls shielded them from any stray bullets and explosives that might try to kill them.

The Husk Grimm, of course, remained as impassive as ever, standing tall and still as the initiates busied themselves in combating their slaves hordes of monsters and nightmares. Grimm flies flew around them, picking apart the skin and flesh of the Husks and burying themselves into the ruined creatures as their ravaged mouths drooled blackened blood and silver saliva, like some sort of nightmarish mixture of light and dark that somehow went wrong along the way to whatever goal their creator was hoping to accomplish.

Pyrrha then looked around to the chaos around her, as initiate met zombie Grimm with blade and bullet, and were beginning to fall. Arms and legs were torn off by undead Beowolf and Dreadlock and Goblin and Theropods. Bodies were felled left and right. Bullets did nothing against these hordes, nor did the blade.

Next to her, an undead Beringel crushed an initiate in its grasp, their blood splattering all over Pyrrha as she fell to the side and threw her shield at the beast.

It merely caught it in its hand.

What was she supposed to do what was she supposed to do what the hell was she supposed to-

* * *

_Around them, the cheers of initiates against their cultist would-be-oppressors filled their hearts with renewed vigour and hope._

_Jaune looked at Pyrrha, his white cloak of aura glowing saintly in the air and smoke around them as he said, "Here that?"_

_"Yes?"_

_"They're cheering for you."_

_Pyrrha didn't stop forming the giant bullet above them as she said, "They're not cheering for me."_

_"Then make it for you."_

* * *

She remembered something that Nana said to Jaune earlier in the day.

_'As long as the lead Husk lives, the dead Grimm under its control are functionally immortal.'_

She knew what she had to do.

Above her, Hariti threw herself around the undead ape Grimm as quick as lightning, slicing through tendons and skin and bone before pushing them all into a mutating and healing pile of blackened gore, before cracking her neck, rolling her shoulders, and then looking down at the girl below, "妹よ！"

"I'm here," Pyrrha went as she picked herself back up, and pulled her shield back into her hands from the regenerating ape zombie underneath her.

Cracking her head and narrowing her eyes on the line of Husk Grimm in the distance, she took in a deep breath, and then yelled out:

"EVERYONE, HEAR MY VOICE AND LISTEN!"

Any initiate who wasn't too busy trying not to lose their lives to the throngs of zombie Grimm looked to Pyrrha, a single spark of hope now growing within their eyes.

"ALL MELEE FIGHTERS, KEEP THESE UNDEAD ABOMINATIONS AWAY FROM US!"

There was a chorus of nods and agreements, and a cheer of hope sprung up once more.

"EVERYONE WHO HAS A GUN OR EXPLOSIVE: RAIN DOWN FIRE UPON THE HUSKS AT THE BACK!"

The Husk Grimm at the back of the crowd began to react, and Pyrrha replied with as much confidence as she could muster.

"WE SHALL CUT THE HEAD OFF OF THESE SNAKES, AND SEND THEIR BODIES BACK TO THEIR GRAVES!"

* * *

_**DUCK!** _

Jaune did so, and rolled across the cold silver and blue hull of the troop carrier beneath him, scraping his feet across the metal floor (Roof?) As overhead, the red tendril whipped at where he had just been before slamming into the ground, the metal bending and snapping underneath the weight of the blow as he jumped over to Rens side, just as he-

{BANG BANG BANG BANG)

-Unloaded a series of rounds into the red mass that was the fake-Ruby, severing multiple tendrils with just a few bullets, only for them to grow back and lash out at them as fast as-

{SLASH}

-They could just them down, throwing blades of all sorts around to block and deflect attack after attack, whilst nearby, Ruby, Yang, and Nana busied themselves-

{CLASH}

{BANG BANG}

{BOOM}

-With fighting the 4 Aspects on top of the ship with them, throwing blade and bullet around as they ducked and weaved between each other in a symphony of battle, an orchestra of war joining together into a show of light and sparks.

The almost nude girl- Who had identified herself as 'Draugr', the Aspect of Interest- Used her arms to tank a charged blast from a flaming Yang, before she smirked, and threw said arms out, and-

{SLOSH}

-Turned them into some kind of floating jelly like substance, before they reformed into a long pair of blades that stretched down from their elbows and curved into a scythe-like blade shaped like a question mark.

Mass shift. Her semblance must be that she could shift the mass of her own body.

Draugr smiled at the shocked Yang, before the latter girl recovered herself and threw another punch at the girl, only for the shapeshifter (Mass shifter? Whatever) To turn her own body into an ocean of liquid in human form and stretch her stomach out into a thin line, before reforming into a gaping, salivating maw filled with hundreds of razor sharp teeth, forcing Yang to jump out of the way as-

{CHOMP}

-The giant thin maw slammed down where she was just standing, before reforming into Draugr once more, and throwing her arm blades at the blonde-haired girl, whist said blonde-haired girl threw a series of blasts from her gauntlets at the mass-shifting girl, right before-

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

-The young boy in the bloodied smart suit, with the bug eyes and the jaw that was just too wide- Whom Draugr had, earlier in the fight, identified as 'Upyr', the Aspect of Joy- Clamped his jaw around Yang's bloody arm, and began to tear apart the skin to suckle on the crimson blood beneath.

"AHAHAHAHAHA BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD-"

"GET OFF ME!" Yang screamed as she physically ripped the abomination of a boy off of her arm and threw him to the side, almost throwing him off of the roof of the troop carrier itself, only for the boy to rip his nails into the metal floor below and keeping himself on the ship, before his back began to ripple and undulate, and his skin began to pulsate and ripple, before-

{SPLISH}

-Splitting open in a splatter of blood, only for that blood to reform itself-

{SHING}

-Into several long red tendrils of pure shining blood, with thin, razor sharp barbs on their ends as they wriggled their way through the air like worms, the boy whom they belonged too smiling widely.

Yang just growled as her aura began to heal the ravaged skin and bloodied flesh, filled with puncture holes, on her arm, "You've got to be shitting me..."

Over on the other side of the troop carrier's roof, Ruby and Nana busied themselves with fighting the twin Aspects of Amusement, Lamia and Lilith, of which they found themselves to be tiring from it.

It wasn't that Lamia and Lilith were strong fighters. It was that they were incredibly persistent fighters. On top of that, their apparent shared immortality meant that no matter how many times the 2 were shot, stabbed, and sliced apart, they would just heal almost immediately and stick themselves back into the fray, duel-welding swords and cutlasses as they fought against the 2 other women.

Twirling her Crescent Rose around in her hands, Ruby blocked a twin swipe from the one called Lamia, and then-

{BANG}

-Fired a round right past her head, grazing the skin right next to her eye, and then bloodying it. Of course, this just immediately healed, and Lamia laughed as she cartwheeled back and quickly crouched to the ground, swiping her blade at Ruby's ankles, not cutting them, thanks to her aura, but it was enough of a strike to knock the Little Red Riding Hood off balance for just a second, which was long enough for Lamia to plant a sharp kick in her stomach, and send her flying across the troop carrier, the harsh winds of the air above threatening to push her off of the airship if she wasn't careful.

Nana, meanwhile, was blocking blows and firing shots at Lilith, whom just sliced her bullets in half whilst they flew towards her with a smirk, as she then light-heartedly commented, "'Nana Shaula'? Now isn't that a lovely name?"

Nana just growled like a jackal, and fired off a pair of rounds into the hyena-like Lilith's knees, only for them to immediately heal as Lilith launched another pair of slashes from her blades at the onyx-haired girl, who growled once more, and continued their fight once more.

(There was a symbol on the back of Nana's leather jacket that he only just realised was there, of a crown placed over a blade. It reminded him of the symbols of many of the old settlements and towns out in the frontier.

Jaune hadn't really been let out of the Arc family home throughout much of his life there, and many of the books that he had been given about the world aside had probably been heavily edited and censored- Due to none of them mentioning the Grimm at all- But he was able to learn a lot about the Frontier of Remnant, and the feudal towns and settlements that populated it, including some of the most famous.

The Frontier was the designation for most of Remnant outside of the reach of the kingdoms and their cities walls, with the wildlands being populated by scattered trading towns, stray settlements, and the occasional roaming village. Here, the law of the kingdoms and the councils only went as far as their cities, their academies, and the few watchtowers and listening outposts that they had in place.

Out in the Frontier, the wildlands truly lived up to its name.

With no true word of law out in the wild, apart from the rule of common decency (And even that was pretty loose in the wildlands), Settlements went feudal, and tended to fend for themselves. Add to the regular banditry from clans and tribes, and many settlements became like that of warlords, ruled by the most powerful of their number, and regularly made war with each other because of it. Settlements regularly looked out less for each other and more for themselves, constantly seeking to take control of the major trading towns and claim more land and resources for themselves in constant brushfire conflicts.

This was a regular occurrence from even beyond the creation of the 4 kingdoms, stretching from the times of the Faunus Empire, to the Golden Empire and the Great Houses, to the Age of Dragons, the Time of the Samurai, the Elven Rule, the Eleventh Hour, all the way towards the Ancient Times and even the Dark Times themselves. Feudal towns and warlord realms would constantly vie with each other for power and survival, against bandits, presumably Grimm, and even themselves, all so that they could see the sunrise once more.

Jaune had learnt of a few famous settlements that had existed over the years, such as the current small alliance of settlements known as the Neo-Empire, the old town known as Delivery, which the Arcs had teamed up with to protect Faunus from Human slavers back during the Faunus Rights Revolution, the settlement of Link, which had been used as a staging ground for Vale and Vacuo's joint armies before their march down the path known as Hero's Trail for their invasion of Anima, the old city of Vivarium, which served as the central capital of the old Faunus Empire, right before its fall and the formation of the 4 kingdoms, and then the ancient, supposedly mythical city of Evernight, the seat of the Dark Empire back during the Dark Times.

So many places lost to time and wear, become mythical thanks to the throes of history. Jaune would've liked to have known what they were actually like, if only out of curiosity, but, of course, he would never get the chance.

However, another quick question came to mind, and this time, he had the means of answering it:

_Hey._

**_YES?_ **

_If you're actually Summer, or the spirit or ghost of Summer Rose, or whatever..._

**_WELL, IT'S A BIT MORE COMPLICATED THEN THAT, BUT SURE. WHAT'S WRONG?_ **

_I imagine that you knew about the Grimm, right?_

**_…YEAH. YES, I DID. I DO._ **

_…Then, if you knew about them, then why didn't you tell me about them?_

**_…_ **

_Summer?_

**_…JAUNE... YOU AND I BOTH... WE KNOW WHAT YOUR PAST WAS LIKE._ **

_…Yeah, I know. I know better than anyone else... Though, that's not true now, apparently._

**_YEAH... BUT, BECAUSE OF THAT, I-_ **

_You didn't think I'd actually ever become a Huntsman, did you?_

**_…I WANTED YOU TO JUST HAVE A PEACEFUL LIFE, OKAY?... I MEAN... I COULDN'T BE THERE FOR MY DAUGHTERS... I FIGURED THAT I COULD BE THERE FOR YOU, AT LEAST..._ **

_…_

**_I KNOW THAT I DID A TERRIBLE JOB... WHAT WITH TIPOCA, AND ALL..._ **

_…_

**_…_ **

_…_

**_…_ **

_…_

**_…_ **

_…_

_**I'M SORRY.** _

Jaune didn't know if he believed her.

Too much had happened with the voices in his head to convince him to just believe him.)

Jaune growled as he sliced Crocea Mors through yet another red tendril and jumped from another lashing one, "This is getting us nowhere," he commented about the fight. They were wasting time with the Aspects, not when there were people in the ship, and even more down below that needed their help. Turning to his side, he then yelled out, "Yang! You and Nana head down into the ship and free everyone inside! We'll take over the ship and-"

"We've got Lancers inbound!"

Jaune looked to Ruby to ask what she was talking about, but then saw it. A swarm of giant evil-looking hornets coming right for them, coloured black with white bones and glaring red beams and eyes, all of them led by a even larger, even more evil-looking hornet, like some kind of queen bee.

Grimm, lots of them. It looked like there was an entire hive of these 'Lancers' coming at them. They must've been drawn to the chaos of Emerald Forest.

"...Oh you've got to be kidding me."

_**GRIMM ARE ATTRACTED TO NEGATIVITY. THEY MUST'VE SENSED WHAT WAS GOING ON IN THE EMERALD FOREST AND CAME IN BY THE- OH GODS, THAT'S A LOT OF THEM.** _

"Yep, I noticed."

Ren looked at him and raised an eyebrow, "Noticed wha-" but was stopped as another red tendril whipped at him, flinging him to the side with a harsh grunt of pain. Seconds later, a series of- Harpoons?!- Harpoons slammed into the roof of the troop carrier like bullets from a machine gun, almost hitting him thrice over, before Jaune once more collected his aura into his hands, and-

{VOMPF}

-Created his aura bubble shield as the harpoons rained down on them and shattered and bent against his pure white aura, the rest of the Recovery Team collecting and sheltering themselves within his shield, just before the harpoons finished raining down onto them- Or at least lessened- As the Lancers busied themselves with attacking the gunports on the troop carrier, the ship in turn shooting back with blue lances of fire and ice, whilst far away, on the other side of the Emerald Forest-

{CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM}

-The flying warship's cannons flashed as bolts of sapphire light flew across the forest and slammed into the horde of Lancers in the air, scattering them, and filling the air with blue bolts and blackened harpoons as-

{VOMPF}

-Jaune's bubble shield dissipated, and the Recovery Team stood tall, before they looked to the side and saw the small swarm of Lancers heading towards them through the blue anti-air and tracer fire flying through the air, headed by their larger Queen Lancer as they glared down at them with blaring red eyes.

Nearby, a gun was reloaded and cocked-

"I've got this!"

-And before Jaune could say anything, a flutter of rose petals exploded next to him-

"Hey, greenie meanies! You want me? Come and get me!"

-And then darted off of the side of the troop carrier, and then onto a nearby Lancer, Ruby reforming and wrapping her Crescent Rose around its neck, and then-

{SLICE}

-Cutting it clean off, before jumping onto another Lancer and cutting of its head as well, and then repeated this process with another Lancer, and then another, and then another, all the while down below-

"Oh no you don't!"

-Lamia and Lilith moved to follow her, jumping onto 2 fading Lancers corpses, before leaping onto 2 live ones and manipulating them into flying upwards, playing hopscotch in midair and with evil monsters as tracer fire and explosions sounded off around them.

"Are all Huntsmen and Huntresses like this?" Jaune muttered to himself, "This kid..."

"That little moron!" Yang called out in anger as her eyes flared a raging ruby red, flailing her arms around as she then called out, "Ruby, I swear to god, you are so grounded when I get my hands on- ACK!"

Applying a punch to the wide mouthed boy that had clamped his mouth around her bloody mouth once more, Yang threw him off and growled, but Jaune stopped her with, "Yang, you and Nana head into the ship and free everyone inside."

"What?!" Yang looked at him with a twitchy-eyed glare, "Are you-"

"Serious? Yes. Ruby can handle herself," of course she could. She was a trained Huntress, wasn't she? She was a progeny, surely. At least, that's what Jaune was telling himself. That was what he was hoping, at least, "Get downstairs, free everyone else. Now."

He twirled Crocea Mors in his hand. Huh, he didn't know that he could do that before.

"Ren and I will handle these jokers."

Yang grimaced, but with a tug of the arm from Nana- "C'mon, let's go"- she acquiesced, and then jumped down through a nearby hatch into the bowels of the ship, gunfire erupting within as Nana followed shortly behind, guns cocking as she flew down.

Jaune then cocked his head to the side, looking to where Ren was as well as the 2 remaining Aspects, Draugr and Upyr, flanked Ruby Alter as she stared them down with that ever present look of apathy on her face as the red tendrils that flowed off of the equally red mist at her feet whipped and squirmed in the air, ready to snap at them once it got the chance.

"How do we free Nora?" Ren asked as he pointed his guns at the ruinous effigy to Ruby Rose.

"I don't know."

"What does that mean?"

"We'll figure it out."

Aura crackled at Jaune's hands, and he prepared himself for the fight.

* * *

Aura crackled at Ruby's hands, and she got stuck back into the fight.

Actually, was it aura, or was it something else? She didn't know, but at the moment, she couldn't find the time to pay it any mind.

Not when she was too busy playing mid-air hopscotch with Lancers as the hopscotches and with a pair of psychotic murderous twins as her opponents.

{BANG}

Went the sound of her Crescent Rose as the bullet broke through another Lancer's skull, sending fading black ichor to the ground below as she leapt off of its fading corpse and burst once more into a fluttering cloud of petals, dashing up into the air as she reformed and-

{CLASH}

-Used the blade of her weapon to block Lamia's swords from swiping down on her as they flew past each other in the air jumping onto their own fresh Lancer, as nearby, Lilith leapt off of her own, and-

{SHOOM}

-Unleashed a great volley of silver light from her eyes, right towards the Lancer that Ruby was perched on like a crow. The Little Red Riding Hood was barely just able to jump off of the Lancer and dash once more through the air as the Lancer was consumed by the light and turned to pure stone, falling down like a missile to the planet below.

 _What was that?_ Ruby asked herself as she jumped from Lancer to Lancer, each one of them turning to stone as they were caught in silver blast after silver blast, falling down to the ground below as she continued to dance and fly through the air in a continuous stream of bursting rose petals, What that a semblance? No, I thought that their semblance was... Was that their silver eyes? Was that the power of the silver eyes?

Ruby didn't have enough time to think about it as the Queen Lancer narrowed its eyes on her as she darted through the air, and then-

**"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!"**

-Gave chase.

Harpoons began to fly around her as explosions and blue tracer fire lit up the air surrounding them, Ruby darting from Lancer to Lancer as their Queen continued to knock them away, Ruby in turn sending volleys of fire from Crescent Rose into the giant hornet as it flew right behind her, all the while-

"You are not-"

"-Getting away!"

-Lamia and Lilith continued to chase after her through the air, jumping from Grimm after Grimm as they danced over and around her, swiping at her with their blades when they clashed and duelled, Lamia in particular jumping onto a nearby Lancer and giving her a wry grin-

"Hello again."

-And then cartwheeling through the air and landing on the same Lancer as the Little Red Riding Hood, the 2 warriors clashing their blades together on the swirling and twirling Grimm as it began to soar into the air and throwing the 2 of them off, just before-

{SLINK}

-Launching a harpoon from its bladed rear into the air, and launching it-

{CRASH}

{SCRASH}

-Right through the unfolded Crescent Rose, shattering it and reducing the weapon to nothing but a sparking metal pole, its remains falling down to the ashy yet frozen world below.

…

Her baby.

Her baby!

_MY BABY!_

Ruby swore bloody vengeance on that particular Grimm as she burst into a cloud of rose petals, and with a fanatic scream of anger-

"YYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

(Her eyes flashed red for just a second.)

-She swung the broken remains of her weapon down with such tremendous force-

{CRACK}

{SQUELCH}

-That it pierced right through the bone mask of the Lancer and went all the way through its head, splattering its body with black gore as Ruby then jumped off, the wind of the air swirling between her locks as she burst into a cloud of rose petals, and-

{STAB}

"AAAHHHHHHHH!"

-A blade went right through her stomach, splattering her waist with crimson red blood.

Ruby bit her tongue through the pain, and then refocused her aura on healing the bloodying wound, only for the owner of that blade- Lilith- To press it further in, and wrap her other arm around her throat.

"I'm sorry about this, Ruby," she could make out over the wind, "But, unfortunately, sometimes a little pain is needed to- How do you say?- Make the point."

Ruby growled-

"Fat chance."

-And then burst once more into a flutter of rose petals, escaping from Lilith's grasp, but now loosing the sword in her gut, the only thing that was keeping all of the blood in her body where it should be.

Ruby bit down on her tongue hard enough to almost cut it off in response to the pain, but she didn't let that stop her as she continued to dart around in the air like a crow, only to see a Lancer narrowing down on her, red eyes glaring and blaring with the intent to kill.

Ruby's arms crackled and hummed with silver energy, so much so that it was beginning to burn her sleeves and turn them into ashy glowing ribbons of heat and fabric, exposing her bare arms as she, instinctively, wheeled one of them back, similar to how Yang would when she was sparring, and then, as the heat and silver light began to grow more and more and more, she roared in anger-

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

-And her eyes flashed red with rage.

Her fist impacted with the skull of the Lancer mid-air, and immediately shattered, only to be healed again by her aura as the silver light from her arms danced down the entirety of the Lancer, and-

{SQUELCH}

-Popped it like a balloon, covering her in fading black gore and ichor as she continued her descent downwards.

"What the heck!?" Ruby got out as the wind continued to bellow past her cape, looking down at her arms, still sparking with silver electricity as she went, "How did I do-"

**"SCREEEEEEEEEEEECH!"**

Oh yeah, the Queen Lancer.

She had honestly forgotten about that.

She looked down below, to the fast approaching ground, and saw the Queen Grimm soaring up towards her, its barbed mouth opening up as it gave off its own roar at the slaughter of its kin and children.

Ruby didn't have time for this.

She instinctively went for Crescent Rose, but then remembered that she didn't have it on her anymore, "Dammit, I need a weapon, I need a weapon, I need a weapon right right now-"

As if on que, her silver eyes flared, and a baring light manifested in her hand, before manifesting-

{SHING}

-Into a silver scythe.

"What... How did that-"

**"SCREEEEEEEEEEEECH!"**

Ruby pushed the thought out of her head as the Queen Lancer roared again, and threw her new energy scythe back, waiting for the right moment to strike, as the Grimm flew closer and closer, as she grew closer and closer, as the blood continued to trickle out of her stomach wound and down her waist, right before-

{SWING}

{VWOOSH}

-She swung her new weapon down, and-

{CRACK}

-Impaled it right into the Queen Lancer's neck.

The Grimm screeched and threw itself around as Ruby flipped herself around to stand on top of it, twisting the blade from left to right as she tried to-

Holy guacamole she was actually trying to steer a Grimm.

Once again, Ruby didn't put much thought to it as silver light spread like veins throughout the Grimm-

* * *

In the Grimmlands, Salem looked up from the scroll in front of her and frowned in annoyance.

* * *

-Making it screech out in pain as it buzzed from left to right and left again with no coordination as Ruby tried to pilot the stupid thing, throwing it from side to side as it twisted in the air, only for-

{STAB}

{STAB}

-Lamia and Lilith stabbed their blades into the Grimm's hide and growled in unison.

"Going somewhere?!" Lamia asked.

"You're not going anywhere!" Lilith growled.

The green-haired twins began to climb across the Grimm, stabbing their swords into the monster for that extra grip as they crawled across the Queen hornet monster, the wind bellowing past them all as Ruby spotted where she needed to be.

There. The troop carrier. There was a hatch in the bottom of it. She had killed dozens of the monsters, reducing them to just a few, and now they weren't going to be able to interfere with their efforts. All she had to do now was steer the Grimm to flying below the troop carrier, and then-

From the airship, several gunports swivelled to where her free ride was- Currently flying right towards the airship in question- And then-

{CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM CHOOM}

-Began to send sapphire anti-air rounds through the sky-

{SQUELCH SQUELCH SQUELCH SQUELCH SQUELCH}

-And into the Queen Lancer.

The Grimm screeched as it began to die, black wisps of smoke flowing from its body as it began its descent downwards. Ruby grimaced, but kept her focus as tracer fire continued to whizz past her, crackling and banging like fireworks as the Lancer continued its descent downwards, tipping further and further down as it began to drift into a nosedive towards the world below.

But, as they began to pass under the opened belly of the troop carrier, Ruby began to twist the glowing silver blade in her hands, and then-

"There we go!"

-Forced the Queen Lancer to fly upwards.

Whoever was manning the underside turrets on the troop carrier seemed to panic, as they all swivelled downwards and looked like they were all about to fire upon the Lancer below them, only to pause at the sight of the Aspects of Amusement on the dying Grimm, which was perfect for Ruby, as she-

"C'mon..."

-Stood straight up on the decaying Grimm as it zoomed towards the engines of the ship, the wind flowing fast through her hair and past her cloak as she-

"C'mon..."

-Crouched down, clenched her hands into fists, and then-

"Yes!"

-Burst into a cloud of rose petals as the Grimm collided with the engines of the ship, rocking it to the side as the Aspects jumped and clung to the rungs at the bottom of the ship, whilst Ruby jetted herself up into the internals of the ship, planted her feet into the necks of 23 cultists that were aiming their guns at her, just before she darted through the corridors of the airship, following the sounds of chaos and battle that was echoing through the hallways, before finally-

"Ruby!?"

-Finding a bloodied Yang and Nana fighting against the black-haired set of twins from before in a tight corridor, dents and fracture lines lining the walls, the lights above flickering and flashing as Ruby vaulted over her elder sister, and-

{SLAM}

-Planted her feet into the 2 twins' jaws, sending them falling back as Ruby backflipped onto her feet and stood straight, before turning to her 2 fellows- One looking in better condition than the other, for some reason- And yelled, "Yang, free the prisoners!"

"I'm on it!" Nana called out as she stepped towards what must've been the door to one of the cells, and then, after punching in a code next to it, opened it up, and looked at the dozens of initiates crammed within, "Hello there, everyone! Who's up for a cozy little jailbreak?"

"..."

"...Guys?"

Ruby peered in, and saw that all of them were just looking at the 2 of them with shackles around their hands and unconsciously narrowed eyelids, and glowing orange collars around their necks. Their heads lulled from side to side drunkenly. Their eyes were as dull as coal. Their skin was paling as something sickly highlighted their veins. Connected to their collars was a tube each that ran all the way up to the ceiling, pumping them with an ugly black substance.

They'd been drugged. They'd all been drugged.

"Impressive, isn't it?"

Ruby, Nana, and Yang wheeled to the side, to see the 2 black haired twins picking themselves up from the floor, cracking their necks as the red-themed one smiled sweetly at them, while the white-themed one growled and bared her teeth.

It was the red-themed one who spoke, "The drugs keep them docile. Can't have a bunch of superpowered teenagers running amuck now, can we?" she laughed, "The collar around their necks, though? An extra bit of insurance."

Ruby looked to the collars around the initiates' necks, eyeing the glowing orange portions intently, "That's combustion dust, in there?"

"Yep. If the initiates get too rowdy, or- Or!" she held up her hand to stop Yang from making a wrong move as she flinched, "If anyone tries to remove them, then the collars tick down, and-"

"They explode and their heads roll off."

"-They explode and their heads roll off, yes. Thank you, Melanie."

"How could you... How could you do that?! This?! All of this!?" Yang roared out in anger as she threw her hand towards the woozy initiates in the ship's cells, "You're drugging people! You're threatening them with-"

"Oh hush, Yang, you needn't be so-"

{KA-BOOM}

{CLATTER}

All of the girls in the corridor were thrown into the wall as the ship lurched to the side, the lights around them turning red as a warning siren began to blare around them.

"What the hell- What was that?!" Nana called out as the ship tried to level itself out, only for a sinking feeling to overcome all of them as the ground suddenly became lighter.

"Oh, er, that might've been... That might've been me..." Ruby nervously laughed, "I might've... Rammed a Queen Lancer into the engines."

The red-themed twin's eye twitched, "Oh my god, the ship is going down."

"...Woops."

* * *

"FIRE!"

{BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM}

Ribbons of fire and bombs flew through the air above as they slammed into the lead Husk Grimm, detonating the world around it as it let out its gurgled roar.

And yet, still, it pushed on, trudging through the flames and coming out of the fire, completely smothered in it, like an angel of death walking out of the depths of hell itself, the undead Tempest Grimm- A jellyfish-like Grimm- Mangled and broken, it's jelly-like top deflated and leaking, and the ends of its many arms fragmented and shattered by a rainbow on unhealthy looking dust, surging forwards once more, its tentacles whipping out and latching onto initiate after initiate-

{CRACKLE}

{FIZZLE}

-Smothering them with electricity and turning them to smoking husks as it continued to gracelessly float towards them. From its back, 2 additional tendrils had spawned. One of bone-chilling ice, the other of burning hot-

"FIRE!"

{BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM}

Another volley of explosives went into the undead Grimm, detonating against its crippled sides as it swayed from side to side from the sheer kinetic force of the explosives sent against it.

And yet it did not budge.

It did not falter.

It did not waver.

It was but one of the many Husk Grimm that were now slowly encroaching on their position ever since they had shifted their tactics. The initiates' melee fighters had done a good job of holding back the hordes of immortal undead monsters as their peers with explosives and bullets began to rain down all hell upon the hordes' masters in the back lines. The Husks, upon sensing the battle's change in pace, began to march forward, joining their lessers in the fray as they continued to rain down their own deadly retaliation onto the humans and Faunus before them.

Pyrrha tried not to let that deter her as she threw her arm forwards, and once more, she called out, "HIT IT AGAIN!" and once more, another volley of explosives and bullets shot out from the lines behind her, and slammed once more into the closest Great Grimm that was approaching them. And once more, none of their attacks made a dent against the monster as it continued to lash out against them.

Each Husk was a powerful Great Grimm, and each Husk commanded a giant horde of undead slaves. If the initiates just wasted all of their efforts on battling the hordes, then they would just be wasting ammo and effort on killing that which could not be killed, hence why just their melee fighters were fighting against the horde, keeping them away from the firing lines as the initiates poured their fire into the lead Husk. They were also focusing all of their fire onto one of the Husks instead of spreading their fire out amongst all of the Great Grimm before them, and that was because of something that Anima Senterra had said about the Husks, or rather about every Great Grimm in general last night:

"They're extremely rare, but it takes multiple teams- Hell, it takes an entire guild's worth- Just to bring one of them down, and they're not always guaranteed a full victory... Or any victory at all."

Great Grimm were incredibly powerful, and it would take so much of their firepower up just to kill one. If they could concentrate their fire in just one of the Husks- If they could kill just one of them- Then they could lessen the horde, and at least make things easier for themselves.

But now, that plan was failing.

Pyrrha looked behind herself to see that their lines were breaking. They were running low on ammo of all kinds, and their morale was at an all time low. It looked like they were just a few seconds away from cutting and running.

Pyrrha couldn't blame them.

Had she made the right choice? Had she been right to try and stand up and fight these things?

Or had she just doomed them all?

…

She refused to believe that possibility.

As much as she hated the title, she was their champion. She was their... Invincible Girl.

She refused to be cowed by these monsters.

And so, she threw her hand back out, and yelled, "FIRE!"

And once more, the sky was filled with tracer volleys and flares of explosive light as they slammed into the Great Grimm.

And once more, they had-

They had an affect.

The Grimm...

It did something miraculous.

It began to bleed.

* * *

Jaune once more used his blade to carve through yet another tendril, only for it to instantly grow back and lash out at him, as he dashed to the side and-

{SLICE}

"AUGH!"

-Felt a long blade carve itself along his back, not breaking through his aura cloak and armour, but enough to throw him off as a long tendril of fleshy mass began to swallow his arm, and then-

"Heheheheh…"

-Began to swallow him whole, consuming him in an ugly mass of thin mess that he, in a panic, proceeded to stab his sword into repeatedly the pink and clay mass of skin and blood, only for the clay-like flesh to move itself around the blade, and then catch his arm completely, beginning to swallow him whole and working to seep its way into his pours, threatening to swallow him whole-

"Come to me, my f-"

-But was stopped by a pink wave of- Aura?- Of aura from above as Ren backflipped over the fleshy mass-

"-What the-"

-And allowed his wave of aura to crash into the moulding flesh, scattering it like a puddle across the roof of the troop carrier as Jaune stepped back in a hurry, and then looked to Ren, "Thanks!"

Ren nodded, but was stopped as-

"HYAH!"

-The Aspect known as Upyr slashed at him with the tendrils of blood that sprouted from his back, whipping them at him as long razor blades of solid blood formed around his hands and scraped across the ground, throwing up sparks at Ren, almost blinding him, just as he sliced at him, the 2 of them locking forest green and crimson red blades as the mass of flesh known as Draugr attacked him as well, whilst nearby-

{SLICE}

{CARVE}

-Jaune threw his blade through another round of tendrils as Ruby Alter continued to attack him, throwing tendril after tendril at him, whipping at the air around him as he blocked and deflected as best he could and-

{KA-BOOM}

{SHUDDER}

The ship rocked to the side, and began to tilt downwards as smoke bellowed from the back of its hull where the engines were. A low whine escaped from the troop carrier below as the fighters on top of it fell to the metal ground beneath them, clinging on for dear life as the wind around them began to bellow even more than before, the ship beginning its slow descent to the ground as-

{SLIDE}

"Ah, shit!"

Jaune began to slide across the ship's hull, having nothing to grab onto across the smooth hull as he clawed for something to keep him in place, but then remembering that he had a sword on him, as he moved to stab it into the metal hide of the ship-

{SHUDDER}

-Only for the ship to violently shudder once more as he was thrown off of the ship, flailing through the air as he screamed in fear at seeing the ground below, only for-

**"I have you."**

-A red tendril to whip out and wrap around his ankles, and then threw him back onto the top of the troop carrier, and throwing him down hard into the metal, winding him as his back ached and his aura instinctively reacted, trailing up his back, but then, for some reason, travelling down his legs and up the red tendril of the Ruby Alter, making it all the way up the thing's body as-

**"Ah."**

-A white pulse of energy flickered through her, and a gap in her head formed.

A turquoise eye and ginger lock peered through.

Jaune gasped, Nora...

The red tendril retreated from him as the Ruby Alter stepped back, her emotionless face broken for a second as a flash of... Something, came over her, though he had no idea what emotion it was. Cracking her neck to the side, she then released dozens of tendrils from the mass of red smoke beneath her, and then threw them down at Jaune. The boy in question threw his shield up as they came for him, before deciding to dart to the side as-

_**SEMBLANCE: PETAL BURST.** _

Suddenly, he was broken apart and remoulded as he sidestepped to the left, pure white fading petals fluttering from him as he looked at himself in sudden confusion, "What the... What was-"

**_I SAID THAT THERE WERE MORE THINGS THAT WE CAN GIVE YOU._ **

**_THAT WAS ONE OF THEM._ **

_Summer... What that-_

**_MY SEMBLANCE?_ **

**_YES._ **

**_THERE ARE 8 IN HERE, WAITING FOR YOU._ **

_8?!_

**_YES._ **

**_BUT ONLY A FRACTION OF THEM._ **

**_A SINGLE PERCENTAGE OF THEM, THANKS TO THE LIMITS OF OUR CONNECTION._ **

**_AS SUCH, YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO ACCESS THE FULL POWER OF THOSE SEMBLANCES THAT WE ONCE USED._ **

_How will I... Can I make them more powerful?_

**_WITH TRAINING, YES._ **

**_BUT FOR NOW, WE HAVE OTHER MATTERS TO ATTEND TO._ **

**_NORA NEEDS YOU._ **

Jaune nodded to himself, _Roger that._

The Ruby Alter was shaken by this sudden burst of power as well, momentarily confused by it, but wasn't deterred for long as it unleashed another wave of red death towards him, sharp and invasive. But then, this time with more control-

{BURST}

-Through a burst of rose petals, he sidestepped to the left, towards Ren, as he-

_Augh, motion sickness! Ugh, that sucked!_

As it turns out, turning into a cloud of rose petals and then turning back into a person?

Not a pleasant feeling.

_**YEAH, IT'S TAKES TIME TO GET USED TO.** _

_**YOU SHOULD KNOW?** _

_**I SHOULD KNOW.** _

Jaune shivered, and then decided to physically roll to the side as another tendril slammed down like a hammer onto the hull of the ship as they began to descend downwards, rocking all of the way there.

The ship was going down, and they were still on it.

He had no idea what the others were doing, but he had a sneaking suspicion that they had something to do with it.

No matter.

Jaune and Ren still had their own problems to deal with.

Darting to the side, he looked to Ren, who had just delivered another concentrated burst of pink aura into the fleshy mass named Draugr, and he yelled to him, "Ren! Alter just reacted to my aura! I don't know wherever it's just mine or if it's aura in general, but I think if we deliver a strong enough burst of it into her, then we can separate Nora from Alter!"

Ren looked at him and nodded, a shine of hope in his eyes as he flipped away from the 2 Aspects that they were fighting, and both charged the red mass that was Ruby Alter-

{BOOM}

{CRACKLE}

-Only for the ship to shudder and shift to the side once more, curving to the side as the opponents on the top of the ship clutched the metal once more, threatening to slide off of the troop carrier before it evened itself out once more.

As Jaune managed to find something to grip onto as the ship tilted on its axis, pointing downwards, he heard a, "JAUNE!" right next to him, and suddenly found Nana right next to him, clutching onto the ship below her as she then went, "Ruby and Yang are trying to take control of the ship, but the engines on this boat are screwed! The best that we can do is try to soften the blow when we hit the ground!"

"Well, we were going to use this thing against the Husks below," Jaune replied with, almost slipping from his grip on the troop carrier, "Tell them that they know what to do."

Nana paused, nodded, and then in a flash, she was gone.

Jaune then looked to Ren, who was now beginning to pick himself off of the hull of the ship as it continued to float down to the ground below, the wind continuing to bellow past them, whilst nearby, the Ruby Alter positioned itself at the front end of the ship, where it was pointing downwards towards the ground, and continued to stand against the wind, its tendrils lashing out in the air at them, forcing the 2 to duck, roll, and then hastily begin their descent (Or slide, if you will), Down the roof of the airship, one of the red tendrils-

{CRASH}

-Slamming into and denting the metal near them as the 2 Aspects lunged at their closest target from behind, that being Ren, as they grabbed him-

"REN!"

-And began to roll down the sloping ship, the boy in question looking for purchase on the ground below, whilst the other 2 Aspects merely mutated themselves with new blood tentacles and arms sprouted from their mass, whilst Ren continued his tumble as-

"Shit shit shit shit shit!"

-Jaune quickly ran down to where Ren was, trying not to slip up as he skirted alongside the vents and freshly made potholes within the ship itself, his sword clung in his hands as he-

**"Got you."**

The tendril in the ground made a grand sweeping motion, and Jaune was flipped up in the air, the wind screaming past him as his aura cloak began to swing and sway and flail uselessly and-

_**CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP** _

_**WHAT DO WE DO WHAT DO WE DO WHAT DO WE-** _

_Guys._

_**WHAT?!** _

_I've got this._

His aura began to collect in his hands, his cloak dissipating into nothingness as his hands were overcome with a pure white glow.

"REN! WHEN I SAY CATCH HER, GO FOR IT!"

And, with a confidence that was completely alien to him, and perhaps a hint of suicidal hope...

He allowed himself to fall.

Within a few seconds, he was screaming towards the Ruby Alter at such high speeds that his mind had to slow everything down into slow motion just to keep up with everything. The Ruby Alter's eyes widened in something that didn't betray the rest of her emotionless face as he pooled all of his aura into one hand-

"Give-"

-Threw it back-

"-Her-"

-And then, with one mighty, sun-making punch-

-BACK!"

-He slammed his fist into the Ruby Alter's face.

There was an immediate reaction. His aura began to spread across the fake-Ruby's body, not healing anything but... Separating them. Deconstructing them as if they were a child's toy blocks. His aura spread through the black and red creature like hot white veins. Every single piece of it.

Something like this- Whatever he was even doing- Couldn't just be done regularly. Whatever this thing that was Ruby Alter even was, it was sucking away his aura like a baby to their mother's breast. Draining it, absorbing it like a sponge to water.

How much aura did he have? A lot, apparently. So much so that this thing eagerly drank away at it like it was a fine ambrosia. He felt himself begin to wither and waver. He felt like his very soul was being ripped out of his body and his mind was being flayed and ripped apart into meaty, bloody chunks.

This was why he said that this couldn't be done regularly. Such a process like this... Of trying to find someone in a sheer metaphysical presence, or entity, or living effigy that had long since achieved transubstantiation...

It was killing him.

…

He wasn't quite sure wherever to be pleased or not at that fact.

But he couldn't die just yet.

He had a job to do after all.

And so, as he was slowly withered and torn into nothing, his mind coming closer and closer to oblivion, and yet that did not deter him, as he pushed himself through the muck and mud, and-

* * *

_…_

_Where was he now?_

_He was standing on an open plain, next to a cliff as the trees swayed behind him. In the distance, the setting sun coloured the sky a mixture of yellow to orange to pink to purple, cresting down into its shelter, in between the 2 cleaved halves of Mountain Glenn._

_What?_

_In the distance was Mountain Glenn, and it had..._

_It had been divided into 2._

_Down below, beyond the cliff, the ground was filled with old craters and long scar marks. The world was filled with fresh and old ravines, overgrowing with trees and vines and grassy fields. Further away, where he might've once been able to make out spires and skyscrapers within the walls of Vale... He could only make out nothing in the long distance._

_Only ruins and a pile of rubble._

_And yet, there were 2 people in front of him, looking out over the Vale-that-was-not-Vale, across the Remnant-that-was-not-Remnant. They were both-_

**_FAMILIAR_ **

_-Yet-_

**_DIFFERENT_ **

_-And yet also-_

**_DIFFERENT_ **

_-Yet-_

**_FAMILIAR_ **

_-And he couldn't understand why._

_Couldn't, or wouldn't. The reason why was alien to him._

_"We need to hide them," one of them said to the other._

_"We need to protect them. We need to teach them how to protect themselves."_

_"Are you- We took them away to-"_

_"I know. But we can't keep her away forever. Sooner or later, she will come for them. Both of them will."_

_"Then we'll fight them."_

_"Do you hear yourself? We've tried fighting them head on, and it hasn't worked."_

_"It has to work!"_

_"And yet here we are."_

_"Then what are we supposed to do?"_

_"...I don't know. What we can. What's right-"_

_"Fuck what's right. Fuck what's right, and fuck what's wrong. Right and wrong: They've failed us. Let us down. Every time someone has said that they're 'Doing what's right', it's all been a load of horseshit so that they can justify all of the evils that they commit. To hell with what's right: We've done 'What's right' for years, and look where it's got us. I'm done with it all. I'm going to do what's good for me, you, and everyone else... We deserve that much."_

_"..."_

_"Don't we?"_

_"...You've changed."_

_"Yeah."_

_"I'm not sure if I like it."_

_"Yeah, well, these are my true feelings. You're just seeing it for the first time."_

_"I don't believe you for a second."_

_"...I'm tired."_

_"So am I."_

_"I just want to rest."_

_"So do I."_

_"...How much longer do we have to go on like this?"_

_"When we've bled ourselves of every sin, so that we might repay all of the wrongs that we have done, even if it is just a fraction."_

_And then, just as soon as the apparition had appeared before him..._

_It was gone._

* * *

-There she was- A single figure being smothered in red and black, with ginger locks of hair and turquoise eyes.

Nora Valkyrie.

With an outstretched hand, he pulled himself in closer to her, through the stiffling horror that sought to impede him, and then...

He tapped her.

Nora's figure exploded with light, and with that, the creature that was named Ruby Alter shattered and shed itself like a cocoon. Ribbons of red and black cloth fell away and dissolved into nothing, as the Ruby Alter exploded outwards, and released the girl called Nora Valkyrie from her prison.

And then she began to fall.

"REN! NOW!"

The green-dressed boy began to move, sliding and running down the front of the ship as Jaune stabbed his sword into the hull of the ship, stopping himself from falling any further and almost dislocating his shoulder again from the sudden stopping force, whilst Ren dashed down the ship, allowing gravity to do much of the work as he-

"RAUGH!"

-Dodged the swiping grasps from the fleshy mass known as Draugr as she took hold of the glowing silver light that was Ruby Alter once more, only to whip a pair of tendrils at both Ren and Nora as he jumped over one of them, reached out his hand to overtake the other, and then-

"Got you!"

-He grabbed Nora by the ankle, reaching over the domed beginning of the ship as the wind continued to bellow past them in an oboe tune, Nora dangling from the edge of the ship, held within Ren's tight grasp, as Draugr loomed over them, fleshy-pink tendrils moving to wrap themselves around them both, as-

{TSCHE-CHU-CHU}

A pink blast shot past Ren and slammed into the fleshy mass, scattering it over the hull of the ship as it screamed.

Ren looked back down, and saw Nora staring up at him, a glowing copy of Magnhild in her hands as it let out a stream of smoke.

Only a few seconds back in the land of the living, and she was already up for a fight.

"Nora! You're okay!" Ren didn't bother putting up his mask of stoicism as he spoke in relief to her.

Nora, as peppy as ever, just smiled, "You really think that you can get rid of me that easily, Renny?"

And then, with her free hand, she-

"Boop."

-Booped him on the nose.

Ren almost laughed, but then he looked over her, and finally noticed... A glaring issue.

"Nora."

"Yes, Ren?"

"...You're naked."

She looked over herself.

Oh yeah, her clothes kind of... Melted, when she was possessed by that Ruby Alter thing, weren't they?

"Oh yeah."

She had forgotten about that.

Then, the ship lurched downwards once more, and continued its increasingly violent descent below.

* * *

"Keep it steady keep it steady keep it steady keep it steady keep it steady-"

"Ruby, will you please stop being such a backseat driver!?"

"Sorry!"

Ruby took the time to block off another blow from a Deacon with a knife, throwing an electricity covered fist into his armoured face, almost breaking her knuckles, but not before sending him flying backwards down the corridor, into a new pair of Adherents, as Yang- After relaying Jaune's message to them- Pulled on a Bishop's leg with enough force to dislocate it, and then threw him into one of the black-haired twins- The white-dressed one- As she continued to duel with the red-dressed one.

None of the cultists dared try and shoot into the cockpit. Even they knew that it would be pure stupidity to fire into the ship's cockpit and ruin the only thing that was still keeping this bird somewhat afloat.

Yang and Ruby, however- Since they were guarding, thereby facing away from, the controls now, and peering down into the corridor of cultists- Had no such worries.

Nana, meanwhile, continued to dart between the controls of the troop carrier, jumping between the 2 seats at the front of the cockpit and over the 2 unconscious pilots as she fiddled with controls and pulleys and levers and buttons and so on, flipping switches and tuning dials as the ship-

{SHUDDER}

-Violently rocked, indicating the loss of another engine-pod.

"I thought-" Ruby stopped herself as she copied Yang's movements (She had trained with her for most of her life, after all. She knew quite a few of her moves), And then decided to try something. Cocking her arms back in a facsimile of Yang's movements, as if she was reloading her own Ember Celica, before throwing them forwards and-

{ZAP ZAP ZAP}

-Allowing 3 shots of silver electricity to shoot out of her arms and into 2 Adherent cultists, while the final shot bounced off of a Deacon's shield and into the ceiling.

Yang looked at Ruby's with wide eyes, "How are you-"

"Don't know."

Yang took that as a good enough answer, for now, and got back into the fight.

Ruby then continued to Nana, "I thought you said that you were a good pilot!"

"Hey, this is not a ship anymore, this is a brick! A fly- Falling! Not even flying! This is a falling brick! How about you come up here and try to fly this thing?! Then we can exchange notes!"

The ship's controls began to blink and fizzle. A console nearby frizzled and exploded in a shower of sparks.

Nana swore in shock, and then looked out of the blue tinted viewport in front of her.

"Well, we're on course now, and the autoguns are prepped. Let's just hope they find their targets," she muttered to herself, before looking back, "Everyone! Get ready! We're about to land hard!"

* * *

Down below, the remaining initiates were fighting for their lives.

They were no longer the strong and the prideful, now. They were the leftovers. The muck. The lost souls and the trauma ridden. The wasted and the broken. The remnants.

Their ammo was almost out. Their blades were dulling. Even their teeth were blunting, and their claws were ripping themselves free from their fingers.

They were the largest pocket of initiates remaining within the forest, and even they were being beaten. What hope did the rest of them have if even the strongest of them could fall?

It was here that Pyrrha finally realised that she was going to die.

And yet she did not falter. She could not falter. She was the Invincible Girl, the undefeatable champion. She did not lose. She could not lose.

And yet was she also not Pyrrha Nikos?

For the longest time, Pyrrha hated her moniker of 'Invincible Girl'. It was a name that was hers, but it also wasn't hers. It meant to be undefeatable. It meant to be immortal, a forever shining beacon of light to those around her. A champion, forever selfless, forever putting those around her before herself. Something that could never be selfish, could never have flaws, could never be in the wrong...

Could never be a person.

Pyrrha wanted to be what the Invincible Girl couldn't: A person. A person with flaws. A person with hopes and aspirations. A person who could be both selfless and selfish at the same time. A person with friends. A person with hobbies and silly habits. A person who could lose. A person who could love instead of constantly being loved...

A person.

And yet, at the end of her life, staring down the mutilated husk of a Grimm that sought to bring about her own demise...

She found herself unable to part from the Invincible Girl.

She wanted to be the Invincible Girl more than she wanted to be Pyrrha Nikos. She wanted to be the undefeatable champion. She wanted to be the immortal Huntress that stared death in the eyes and barked out a laugh at its cowardice. She wanted to be that which would hold the rope for the fears of humanity to hang themselves from. She wanted to win, forever and ever and ever and ever.

She did not want to lose, for the Invincible Girl could never lose.

So, in the end, that begged the ultimate question:

Did she want to be Pyrrha Nikos, or did she want to be the Invincible Girl?

She felt everything that she thought she knew about herself going from known to unknown. She felt herself being asked a million different things about herself that she knew not the answer to.

Except one:

_What will you do?_

And she responded the only way she knew how:

She attacked.

"FIRE!" she screamed out, her throat already raw from yelling so much as another volley of fire stretched out overhead, slamming into the undead Tempest Husk as its jelly-like shell continued to crack itself open, exposing the pulsating brain underneath as it swayed from side to side, disorientated and dizzied from the fire spreading across it.

Just one more volley... That would be enough to kill it.

"FIRE!"

Nothing happened.

She looked back to the lines of initiates behind her, and realised the horrible truth:

They had all run out of ammo.

Their faces were wretched with despair, their bodies slumped over and wracked with fatigue. Their weapons were smoking and red hot, their bellies empty of bullets and explosives.

Their lines were breaking, splitting apart as swarms of zombie Grimm poured into them like ants to food. Their queen ants, the Husks, continued their relentless march forwards as the initiates began to break apart, panicking and fleeing and falling to their knees in fear.

She should've ordered them to retreat. She should've fallen back when she had the chance. She should've done something other than stand and fight against this nightmarish horde.

Pyrrha Nikos would've done that.

But the Invincible Girl?

The Invincible Girl would've stood and fought.

Pyrrha narrowed her eyes at the sight of the pulsating Tempest Husk, and then threw her shield to the ground-

Behind her, Anima shifted out of her animal form, and looked at her with wide eyes, "Pyrrha? Pyrrha, what are you-"

-Jumped onto it, as Hariti, her familiar, latched onto her back-

"Pyrrha, what are you do... Oh, don't you dare."

-Whilst a black glow overcame the shield beneath her-

"No no no, don't you dare do what I think you're about to-"

-And then, with a surge of aura-

"Pyrrha! Don't you dare-"

-She flung the 2 of them high into the sky.

Pyrrha and Hariti launched up into the air, and then began to quickly fall like a mortar round, leaving a trail of aura-light behind them as they covered themselves in a shield, Pyrrha shifting her Miló into its xiphos sword form, and then, recalling her shield, Akoúo̱, the 2 of them-

{CRASH}

{SPLATTER}

-Slammed themselves into the pulsating brain of the Tempest Husk, and began to run across the long beast, dragging their blades through the creature as it howled in pain, torrents of fowl, rotting blood spraying from its fresh wounds like a torrent as its electricity shredded tentacles began to reach out from below itself and stretched up to grab and kill them.

Neither of them would give it the chance.

The 2 of them reached the end of the Tempest Husk, and-

{DASH}

-Leapt off, flying through the air as the mangled tentacles reached where they once been standing-

{ZAP}

-And touched its own brain.

The electricity reached through its body via its exposed insides and let out a gurgled shriek, and down below, the undead Grimm down below that belonged to it fell down and died their final death. The Husk Grimm began to gurgle and cry as blackened rotting blood leaked out of every wound like waterfalls, and then...

It died its second death.

The Husk went limp and collapsed to the ground, turning into stinking smoke, then nothingness, and then less than nothingness. Pyrrha and Hariti then landed on the ground, rolling and groaning as they picked themselves up, coughing as they got back up to their feet, just as-

{SLAP}

-Anima walked up to her and punched her in the jaw.

Pyrrha didn't even budge from it, but Hariti quickly got between them with her dagger drawn, aimed at Anima, before the blonde-haired woman growled, her sharpened teeth showing and her boys at her back as she looked at Pyrrha and went, "What the hell was that?!"

"Ani-"

"Goddammit Pyrrha, I know that you've got a death wish or something but would you mind letting the rest of us know when you're going off to commit your spectacular suicide?!"

"I-"

"Or better yet, can you actually act like a goddamn leader and, I don't know, lead us?! Try not to get us all killed or something?!"

Pyrrha looked around, and saw that the remaining Husk hordes were still swarming them. They had wasted so much time trying to kill the one Husk, that all of the others were moving to encircle them as they pounced on her fellow initiates.

They were loosing. Pyrrha Nikos had brought about their end. Their loss (But not the Invincible Girl, because the Invincible Girl did not lose).

Anima didn't even give her any time to collect her thoughts as she turned to the lines and went, "Everyone, fall back! We'll regroup at a better location, break out of the forest, and-"

"Incoming!" one initiate yelled, and pointed up into the sky at... Something, and as Anima, Pyrrha, and everyone else looked up into the sky, they saw it.

One of the troop carriers. The one that Jaune and his team had gone off to hijack and use against the Husks. It's back was flaming, it was leaving a trail of thick black smoke towards it...

And it was swerving down to the ground below.

* * *

"Hoh boy."

Jaune clamped his hands down onto the vent that he was holding onto. Around him, the others did the same.

"This is going to hurt.

* * *

"GET DOWN!"

{CRASH}

{KA-BOOM}

The troop carrier hit the ground hard, its weapons firing wildly into the Husks before it as it left a massive dent in the ground, kicking up dirt and flames from itself as it bounced slightly off of the ground, and then-

{CRASH}

-Slammed back into the ground, scraping up the dirt and muck beneath them as it-

{SLAM}

-Crashed into the first Husk-

{SLAM}

-And then the next-

{SLAM SLAM SLAM SLAM SLAM SLAM SLAM SLAM SLAM SLAM}

-And then into the rest of them.

The troop carrier slid onto its side and continued to scrape through the ground, threatening to roll over as it crushed all of the Husks onto its sudden weight and force, shattering bones and organs as the ship's remaining engines-

{KA-BOOM}

-Exploded behind it, giving the ship more sudden force as fire trailed behind it, mud and muck staining the metal and earthly colour as it continued to push the Husks closer and closer to the ravine nearby, the Husks in turn trying their best to stop the troop carrier from pushing them into the ravine, forcing all of their weight into it.

However, it wasn't enough.

The troop carrier finally came to a stop, rolling onto its side, right at the edge of the ravine, but not before-

**"RAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!"**

-Pushing every single Husk down into the deep chasm below, the sounds of them crashing and being crushed underneath their own weight echoing through the chasms in sickening crunches. Thankfully, it only lasted for a few seconds.

Almost all of the undead Grimm dropped to the floor, and died once again.

The crowd of initiates couldn't find the spirit in them to cheer.

Up on top of the ship, a single figure got up onto their shaking feet, and was then joined by 2 more. From the cockpit, 3 more bodies wormed their way out and onto the ground, tired and battered.

Jaune, on top of the ship, just waved apologetically, "Sorry for leaving you guys," his lips said, before he turned his head to the side, and-

{ZWIP}

-A blue laser sight narrowed itself on his forehead.

And then one on Nora.

One on Ren.

One on Nana.

One on Ruby.

And one on Yang.

Around them, the initiates looked, and then gasped.

Whilst the initiates had been busy fending off the Husks, they had completely forgotten about the cultists on the ground.

The Cult of Silver had been using the Husks as a distraction, to heal their forces, and then completely encircle the initiates.

They were all trapped underneath a dozen rested, and well supplied guns.

The complete opposite of the tired, ammo starved initiates.

Baobhan Sith stood in front of this horde of cultists, her arms behind her back as her fellow Aspects stood besides her. On the wrecked troop carrier nearby, Draugr and Upyr glared down the 3 on the roof as they recovered themselves, whilst nearby-

**"Grrrr… RAUGH!"**

-The last Husk Grimm, once a mutilated Beowolf, now reduced to just a barebone skeleton with ribbons of bloody meat sticking to it, picked itself out of the ravine and stood tall, blackened ichor dripping off of it as it twitched manically, its remaining horde of undead Grimm snarling and howling.

Baobhan just said one word:

"Surrender."

And they did.

Well, they were about to, before-

**"RAAUU- Gugh!"**

-A purple aura grabbed a hold of the Husk Grimm by its head, and then effortlessly-

{SNAP}

-Twisted it to the side.

The Husk Grimm collapsed into nothingness, and the Grimm that it commanded died as well.

Everyone, from cultist to initiate looked up, and their eyes widened.

One side felt muted surprise.

The other felt a different emotion stirring.

Hope.

Dozens upon dozens of Bullheads. Over a hundred of them. All of them filled to the brim of Huntsmen and Huntresses and other fighters.

And in the lead Bullhead, Miss Glynda Goodwitch was standing outwards, her riding crop in hand as she looked down at those who would dare harm her students, and felt barely restrained anger.

The cavalry had arrived.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "We're in the endgame now, boys."
> 
> I know that I've included some real Hollywood tactics in this, but to be fair, our future team leaders are only just learning the ropes, are complete newbs at all of this, and I don't think that the initiates' collective Huntsman pride, as well as young, inexperienced arrogance would've allowed them to do anything other than 'Shoot at all of the things', so bear with me, will you?
> 
> Anyways, with all of that, leave a review, follow, favourite, stay safe, stay healthy, and I'll see you all next time!
> 
> Titanmaster117 out!


	13. Beacon part 11: End of the Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reinforcements arrive, and the curtain closes on the battle of the Emerald Forest...

**Main theme:** _[Death Hymn by Lucas King](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmTN8wu2AM8)  
_ **Arc theme:** _[Rise from the Destiny 2 soundtrack](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=intmEEVphig)  
_ **Theme:** [_Red Like Roses Part 1 and 2_ _by Jeff Williams and Casey Lee Williams_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iSTJYIXYao)

* * *

With a leaping motion, Glynda leaped out of the Bullhead's opened doors and to the ground below. Coating herself in her own semblance, glowing an ethereal purple, she weaved and danced between tracer rounds and rocket blasts as she, through her semblance, picked up every stray shard of metal in the field of the Emerald Forest below, and-

{TOSS}

{CRASH}

{SHATTER}

-Threw them into the crowds of cultists as she placed herself on the ground below where the once Great Grimm known as the Husk had faded away like it was a discorporate ghost. Pushing away the wafting remnants of inky smoke from her as they dissipated into nothingness, Glynda looked down at the initiate gathered nearby, the defeated and the wounded, and sent them a reassuring nod.

Their battle was done. Leave this to the professionals.

Behind her, one of the best teams in Beacon's second year followed her down and hit the ground behind her. Team CFVY readied their weapons, and around them, dozens more Huntsmen and Huntresses joined the fray.

Nearby, the cultists scrambled to recover as they forced the metal shards and slabs off of themselves, only to be blinded and wounded and scattered once more as Huntsmen and Huntresses landed within their ranks, setting off explosions and as their walkers and droids detonated into flaming balls of shrapnel and twisted hot metal. Swords clashed together, ice fought against fire, silver thought against a rainbow of colour.

In the sky above, the massive warship at the other side of the Emerald Forest opened up its cannons, and sprayed sapphire tracer rounds and cannon fire into the air as the troop carriers repositioned themselves near the warship, from which 3 more drone fighter craft detached themselves from the ship and soared into the sky, intending to dogfight with the lightly armed and armoured Bullheads and carriers that the Huntsmen were employing as their air force. Silver and blue floating sky platforms with glowing blue bottoms floated off from the warship and let their giant 4 barrelled auto-cannons rip, spraying the air with blue fire and missiles as the sky was coloured an unnatural mixture of blue and orange, the Bullheads, not being built for dogfighting, being ripped apart in the air, but still serving as a severe threat from just their sheer numbers alone.

And in the midst of all of this, those that seemed to identify themselves as the Aspects of the Cult of Silver scattered to tend to the war around them, whilst their leader, a black-dressed girl with eyes of silver and hair as white as snow, merely curtsied to Glynda, and cheerfully went, "Well hello there, Miss Goodwitch. I am Baobhan Sith. Perhaps I may inquire as to what business you have here, today?"

"You can cease with the pleasantries, monster," Glynda almost growled, "You try to murder my students, and then you have the gall to try to play nice with me?"

"Ah, but do you not commit murder daily?" the woman- 'Baobhan Sith'- Asked coyly, "You send your students off, day by day, knowing that they would all die for a war that did not deserve them, for a cause that you know is impossible. Is that not murder, if indirectly?"

Glynda would not let Baobhan's snake oil words get into her head. She pointed her crop, and this time, she truly did growl. She would not allow this witch of a woman to harm her students, official or not, anymore, "Surrender. Now."

"No, I don't think I will," Baobhan's smile widened, who then just threw her arms outwards, and asked, "Tell me: Where is our good friend Ozma, hm?"

From up above, a single voice called out-

"Right here."

-And a olive green plume of energy shot down and towards the leader of the Cult of Silver, burning white hot and filled with the angers of a father figure when he saw his adoptive children brought to harm.

Baobhan merely redirected it into a close patch of dirt with a lazy swipe of her arm.

The ground nearby exploded with righteous fury, green and yellow and orange and shattering everything around it, spraying flames and dirt all over the world around them as smoke bellowed and then thinned like vapour.

Baobhan hadn't even flinched.

She looked before herself, and saw Ozpin standing right in front of her, his cane known as The Long Memory in his hands, his face calm, his body stoic. His eyes though... His eyes were alive and enraged, like a parent when they see their children brought to harm.

"On any other day, I might merely ask you to surrender," he said, a hidden edge in his voice that any other man would find terrifying, "But today, you have struck quite the nerve by attacking those under my care."

Glynda bristled slightly, _Our care, Ozpin. They are as much my responsibility as they are yours._

Baobhan tilted her head to the side, "So, I suspect that you are angry at me, underneath that emotionless façade," another smile, "Good. I want this fight to be a true spectacle."

Ozpin flexed his fingers, and then, the dials on The Long Memory began to turn, "Order your forces to stand down, now, or I fear that I may act... Rashly."

Baobhans grin turned smug, and then, her body began to hum a bright silver, "You want me? Then come get me."

And in a flash, she was gone.

* * *

Jaune barely had any time to think before a fleshy tentacle from the mass that was Draugr slammed into her back and threw him across the parked hull of the troop carrier below him, landing hard as his aura cloak held, pulling the rifle off of his back and aiming it down at the bubbling mass of skin and flesh, and-

{CLICK}

Dammit. Out of ammo.

With a growl, he simply chucked his gun at the mass, and pulled his sword from his scarab, his shield extending out as he positioned himself into the best battle position that he could muster, before-

{FWOOSH}

""Eh?""

-A purple glow overcame both Draugr and Upyr, and they were lifted up into the air, before-

"What the- WAUGH!"

-They were subsequently flung off of the smoking ship, and into the battlefield below.

Jaune blinked. What the heck was-

"Miss Valkyrie!"

Jaune looked downwards, to see that scary looking blonde-haired teacher with the riding crop and glasses looking up at them, Coco and her team behind her as Ren and Nora looked down as well, and Nora replied with, "Yeah?"

"May I ask as to why you are... In the nude?"

Nora looked back down at herself, and then sheepishly said, "Er, yeah... Funny story about-"

{VWOOSH}

A tracer round from a sniper rifle whizzed past her head, and she ducked instinctively. Down below, the scaring looking woman raised her riding crop, and-

{FWOOSH}

-A purple glow overcame Jaune, Ren, and Nora as they were lifted off of the ship's roof, and then-

"""Oof!"""

-Planted on the ground below with a {THUD}.

"Ow," Jaune muttered to himself, before pushing down his aura cloak's hood over his eyes, and paused as he picked himself off of the ground and looked up at the scary looking woman, "Um, thanks, er-"

"Miss Glynda Goodwitch, thank you," 'Glynda Goodwitch' replied as she realigned her glasses on her forehead, and then said, "Get to the rest of the initiates. We will deal with these upstarts that attacked-"

"Miss teacher lady! Miss Goodwitch!" from the side, Ruby appeared next to them in a flash of rose petals, missing the giant scythe weapon that she had as she pointed to the ship and went, "The prisoners! The Cult's got prisoners inside of the ship! Over a hundred initiates, maybe more!"

"Is that so?" Miss Goodwitch said with a veil of anger in her voice, before turning behind her to Coco and her team, and going, "Miss Adel, see to it that these prisoners have all been-"

"Miss, they've all been drugged! The Cult's drugged them and fitted bomb collars around their necks! If we tamper with them, then they'll kill the initiates!"

Miss Goodwitch's eyes widened at that, and it looked like she was about to say something else, but was stopped as the hull of the troop carrier was-

{THUD}

{CRACK}

{SHRED}

-Cracked open under a wail of ice and fists, and out stepped the 2 twins of the Cult of Silver, one of them being the black-haired twins in white and red, and the 2 Aspects of Amusement, their wounds healing as their cultist fighters, wounded but combat ready.

The black-haired one with the white dress looked at them and growled, "Hello again you little-"

{VWOOSH}

A sudden blast of wind slammed into them and threw them across the battlefield, just as soon as a girl with pink hair, red eyes, and dressed in a black and white maid outfit landed right where the blast of hot wind had hit the ground, and stood tall before them.

"Ryuzu!?" Jaune asked as the pink haired maid flexed her fingers and raised a hand towards the gathering of cultists and-

{VWOOSH}

-Unleashed another blast of wind into the fighters and scattered them even more. A bullhead, meanwhile, soared overhead, before being shot down by an RPG from below, and swerved into the ground.

"The Cult's leaders. The Aspects," Ryuzu said as she sent off another gust of harsh wind into the cultists ahead of her, "I saw them from up above. They're regathering their forces and ignoring any Huntsmen that get in their way. They're coming back here."

Miss Goodwitch looked towards the lines of wounded initiates, and then to the ship, "They're still after the initiates," before looking at the people gathered before her, and going, "Get to the rest of your peers, now. We'll hold the line."

"I'm staying, too," Jaune said to her.

"Out of the-"

"It's not out of the question. I can still fight, and I want to fight."

**_JAUNE, I THINK YOU'VE FOUGHT ENOUGH FOR TODAY. JUST GET TO THE LINES AND-_ **

_Not now, Summer._

**_JAUNE-_ **

_No, Summer. I'm staying._

"I'm staying too," Ruby said besides him as silver light crackled around her arms. Behind them, Ren, Nora, and the recently arrived Nana and Yang nodded as well, as did Ryuzu, "Someone's got to make sure that the Cult doesn't get to the people within this ship."

"Ryuzu just wants to kick some people's faces in."

"Yes, well, thank you for the-"

"Shut up, barf boy."

"O-Okay."

Miss Goodwitch paused as she looked at them, a long standoff between them all ticking down second by second, before eventually, she relented, and said, "Very well, it is all hands on deck now, I suppose," she pointed to the edges of the lines of initiates with her riding crop, and said, "Get to the lines, and protect them. I'll be organising a defence with our forces up above and on the ground, whilst Ozpin is off pursuing the Cult's leadership. Miss Adel, take your team with them. Make sure that none of these cultists break through the lines, understood?"

"Got it, Miss," Coco said as she walked up and smacked Jaune encouragingly on the arm, "Let's go, guys and gals. We've got a war to win."

Everyone nodded, and followed them towards the frontlines as the battle around them continued to escalate.

All the while, the cultists regathered their strength, and began their march.

They were ready to finish what they started.

* * *

Taiyang remembered this moment.

Or at least, the sensation of this moment.

The feeling of falling through the sky, the wind bellowing past his locks and over his body as he descended further and further down, the chill of the air mixing with the heat of the sun as he jumped out of the Bullhead above.

Well, of course, when he went through his Beacon initiation back in his day, he didn't have to worry about anti-air fire and missiles flying at him as he dropped into the Emerald Forest, his semblance, Burn Out, building up kinetic energy and heat around him-

That was the difference between his semblance, Burn Out, and his daughter's, Yangs, semblance, Burn. While Yangs semblance could only harvest kinetic energy from any blows that she received, Taiyangs semblance could create its own synthetic kinetic energy and release it as something akin to a firestorm. In all honesty, Yangs semblance was considered, more or less, to be a downgrade from his own, seeing as she had to get hit for it to work, but no one would ever tell her that, less it bruise her ego.

-As he threw an arm back, screaming down to the ground below, right into a cluster of cultists, before-

{KA-BOOM}

-He impacted with the ground below, and erupted into a fiery explosion that shattered machines and sent soldiers flying in all different directions, shattering bones and breaking skulls as they all hit the ground hard, groaning in horrible pain as they did.

Good. That's what they get for trying to hurt his daughters.

Behind him, Maelstrom, Kaia, and the rest of his men from his private company followed him out of the Bullhead above and onto the ground, spreading out into a line as they engaged the cultists coming at them, and-

"Dad?"

His eyes widened, and he looked behind himself. There, speeding up to him, were his 2 little girls.

"Ruby! Yang!" he called out as they ran up to him and hugged him tightly, the father in question returning the tight embrace as he held them strong, and then looked down at them, "Oh gods, I'm so glad that you're- Yang, your chest!"

Her chest was broken and covered in dry blood, wrinkled by heat and ice burns, fractured into bloody channels and scabbed ravines. It was coloured black and white and red and was punctuated by ice and heat burn boils.

Yang looked down at herself- "Ah, shit."- And then unwrapped her scarf, actually her pyjama shirt that she rolled up and threw around her neck, and put it on over her burnt clothing, "There. All better."

"No, not all better. The complete opposite of better, in fact," Taiyang gave them a stern look as he looked at them, "What did they do to you? Ruby, where is your weapon?!"

"Oh yeah, about that," Ruby nervously chuckled, "It kinda... Sorta... Got... Broken... It- It broke. Grimm broke it."

"Yeah, and I got my chest turned to ice and then punched into bits, can we please move on?" Yang sardonically asked, wincing for a moment as she pumped her chest with a fist that was covered in too much blood that didn't look like it was hers, "Look, I'm fine. I'm fine. Can't say the same about Ruby-"

"Hey!"

"-But I can still fight!"

"In my opinion, I think the both of you have got yourselves almost killed enough, for one day," Taiyang said to the both of them, before pointing back to the lines behind them, and going, "Get to safety, now."

"What?!"

"But Dad-"

"No 'Buts', you 2! I've had to watch those cult freaks try to kill you repeatedly on live TV, and I am not letting you throw yourselves into the meatgrinder once more! Get to the back of the lines. Now."

"Uncle Qrow would-"

"Ruby, Qrow would agree with me! Now get to safety, and-"

{KA-BOOM}

Ahead of them explosions rocked the assembled ranks of Huntsmen and Huntresses as multiple Bullheads were knocked out of the sky above, and from the smoke and ash and plumes of ice, 2 figures emerged. One of them was a hulking giant in bulky blue and black armour and robes, with glowing yellow patterns covering him, a gasmask like helmet with glowing yellow optics, and a pair of large cylinders on his back with a unhealthy blue glow to them that connected to a large cannon that h wielded in his hands. The other was a boy that was more machine than man, with robotic arms and legs, and a face that was completely shaven and hidden underneath a cloak made from a wolf's fur coat, the left side of his face being entirely metal, with a glowing red optic built into it, and a large rifle in his hands that hummed a steady blue, with 3 prongs at the end of the long barrel, almost like a futuristic crossbow.

"Hello there, boys and girls!" the bulky one called out with a wave, "Lovely to see and kill you all today! I'm Hsi-Hsue-Kue, the Aspect of Pride, this lovely fellow to my side is Jaracas, the Aspect of Forgiveness, and we're here today to murder you all in the most painful, excruciating ways possible!"

"Cool it," the one with the wolf fur cloak and rifle- 'Jaracas'- Said, as he looked over the crowds of Huntsmen, their backs against their own forces of armed cultists, and said, "We only want the girl, Ruby Rose. Give her over to us, and we will let you live. If you don't, then we can't be held responsible for what happens next."

This was enough to give Taiyang a moment's pause. Ruby? What did they want with Ruby? Why on Remnant would they ever want to take Ruby?

Then it dawned on him. An obvious realisation, to be honest. Ruby was a Silver-Eyed Warrior. The Cult of Silver had based themselves on Silver-Eyed Warriors. They worshipped Silver-Eyed Warriors. Hell, they were led by Silver-Eyed Warriors. As of today, they had killed entire scores of people- Children!- And sent discourse and disunity throughout all of the kingdoms in the name of the Silver-Eyed Warriors.

He wouldn't let them take his daughter. Not today, not now, not ever.

He glared down the 2 Aspects, and growled out, "Over my dead body."

Jaracas merely aimed turned the lights on his rifle from blue to a sickly green, took aim-

"That can be arranged."

-And fired.

* * *

Baobhan Sith willed a blade of silver light into her hands and used it to-

{CLASH}

{BOOM}

-Block a blow from Ozpin's cane that was so powerful that it uprooted trees from the aftershocks and wind, and left a giant crater in the ground from the sheer force alone, spraying mud everything and turning it into a thick cloud of dust and dirt as it scattered all over the world around them.

And yet still, Baobhan was undeterred.

"You're weaker than I imagined, old man," Baonhan teased as she, at lightning speed, parried blow after blow after blow after blow and then delivered a riposte into Ozpin that would've worked if he hadn't dodged out of the way in time, "If you truly were as powerful as I had been taught, then I would be nothing but a pile of gore on the floor by now."

Ozpin didn't say anything as he summoned an olive green energy barrier to block a dozen silver beams of light that shot out of Baobhan's eyes and into his domed shield, each one exploding into silver light and smoke, but doing little against his shield.

But little still meant that something was being done.

It was small, but it was there.

A flicker across his shield.

A flicker of fatigue.

A flicker of weakness.

"I saw that, Ozpin," Baobhan laughed as she teleported to Ozpin's side as he let his shield down and then-

{PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH PUNCH}

-Delivered a combo of punches into his side, each one with more and more silver energy behind it, before delivering a burning hot palm to his chest-

{KA-BOOM}

-And detonating it at point black range, sending Ozpin flying across the battlefield and-

{CRASH}

-Coming to a stop in an uprooted pile of burnt and burning trees, hot and messy and smouldering to the touch.

With a slight groan, Ozpin picked himself back up from the mess, and readied himself to get back into the fight.

"You know, I was told stories about you," Baobhan cheerfully recounted, not even considering Ozpin as a real threat as she threw her arms out wide and soaked in the air, "The great and powerful Ozma, the one who went by many name, from King Arthur of the Great Houses, to Zagreus, the Dragon Slayer who brought an end to the Dragon War and slew Beirdos, the Eternal via just a single swipe of his blade, to now Ozpin, the greatest living warrior in all of Remnant. The Ozma who was so powerful that he could shatter mountains and silence volcanos with just a single strike."

She laughed.

"How far removed the myths are from reality, indeed."

"What is this all about?" Ozpin found himself asking.

"Hm?"

"What do you seek to gain here? What is it that you want?" his eyes narrowed, "You attempt to reveal my secrets to the world, release confidential information to the public, and then you attempt to divide the world even further than it already has been via pushing on these divisions and truths. Why?"

"Why? Being born is its own why. I didn't ask to be born into this world of nightmares and monsters. No one did. Why should we be born into this world, which exists to be filled with nothing but pure evil?"

"Enough with the pontificating," Ozpin demanded, tapping his cane against the ground as he glared, "What do you want?" a pause, and then, "You are an agent of Salem, are you not? You and your cult. Your are her pawns, aren't you?"

"..."

For once, Baobhan paused. She just stared at him in silence whilst the world around them continue to devolve into anarchy and chaos. Her face became blank and emotionless, her silver eyes loosing their shine as she looked at him, her arms going limp by her side as her hair fluttered in the wind.

And then...

"Heheheheheheheheh…"

She began to laugh.

"Hahahahahahahahah… Hahahahahahahahah! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!"

Baobhan threw her head back and let out the loudest, most manic laugh that Ozpin had ever, bellowing and echoing across the arena around them as tears- Tears?- Fluttered down her cheeks as her face threatened to split open from just how wide her smile was.

Then, she threw her head back down to look at him, with wet cheeks covered in a red flush and a smile that spoke of nothing but suffering madness as she looked at him and almost screamed out:

"Salem?! You believe me to be Salem's pet whore!? You believe that my kin are her pet sluts and sycophants!? I! Hate! Salem! I hate her for everything that she has done to me! Done to us! Done to our world at the heed of her monsters and selfish dreams of a grand suicide! I would wish for nothing more to ground her beneath my heel, trap her between my legs and make her my slave before I tear her head off and let her body grow back around the pike from skull to rectum, as she begs for a death that will never come! I will tear her soul from her body and harvest her corpse, as she screams in agony! BEGGING ME! TO LET! HER! DIE!"

She stopped her rant, and paused to catch her breath, taking in deep heaves of air as she tilted her head down, her face red with rage, with hysterical anger, as she reigned in herself and looked back up at Ozpin, her boiling rage held down, her face calming itself, back into her affable smile, almost apologetic at her outburst.

Ozpin blinked, and took a step back, his face as stoic as ever, but his eyes rolling with hidden emotion.

This woman... She truly wasn't Salems? He had been running on some sort of assumption, even when they had been broadcasting earlier and put him on the air, that they might've been the Grimm Queen's agents, even when they were exposing and lambasting her on the air.

Everything always played into Salem's hands, one way or another. Every sudden movement, every change in behaviour, every decision, big or small, his or others: It was always influenced by her, one way or another. It always all tied back to the Queen of the Grimm, one way or another.

Everything always led back to her.

And in a way, so did this.

Did it?

She hated Salem.

She despised Salem.

She wanted to kill Salem.

She wasn't... She wasn't one of her pawns?

Could this be an entire new player on the board?

…

Ozpin didn't know how to react to that.

Throughout most- Almost all- Of his very long life, Ozpin had always been playing against and reacting to Salem in one way or another. Every piece on the board was hers. If there were any other players in the game, they would soon prove themselves to be a barely efficient player to be considered a threat, and were either ignored or dealt with quickly, and even this was rare and in-between.

But this was different.

These people- The Cult of Silver- Knew about Salem and Ozma.

They knew about the gods and the maidens.

And they had successfully assaulted Valerian territory- His own academy's grounds- Launched the biggest cyberattack in history, released dozens, if not hundreds, of confidential files and documents, and delivered a speech with enough charisma and passion to fuel the fires of division within the kingdoms and spread disunity across Remnant.

They had done more than any other third party faction on Remnant, and successfully planted themselves as a third player on the chessboard.

But maybe...

If they hated Salem that much...

Then they might not need to be an enemy.

"It doesn't have to be like this," Ozpin said to her, "You will have to stand trial for your crimes, yes, but... If you cooperate, then we can work against Salem, defeat her Grimm hordes, and then-"

"Stop."

He did, and Baobhan continued with that forever pleasant smile.

"I see what you are doing. Thinking of me as a player on a chessboard. As a pawn for your games with the Witch Queen."

She giggled, and then paused.

"I've always hated chess, you know. Too many rules. Too many stifling rules, too many restrictions, too many motifs. A needlessly complicated gain with little viable strategy to take away from it."

Another pause.

"To be honest, as much as I hate Salem-"

Then, her eyes narrowed, and her smile turned into a frown.

"-I hate you just as much."

She flexed her fingers, and balled them into fists.

"How many, Ozpin?"

He dared not back down, "What?"

"How many people have died in your name?"

He didn't flinch.

"I know you know. You're not like Salem, are you? Not in that respect. You remember each and every one of them, don't you? All of their faces, all of their names, all of their personalities, all of their connections and interactions. The hundreds of thousands of millions of corpses that lay at your feet."

…

Yes.

He did.

He remembered every single one.

She giggled again, and threw her arms wide.

"Have you ever considered that all of this is your fault?"

Everyday.

"Your presence creates these monsters."

He knew.

"Tragedy follows you like a disease."

He knew this too.

"It infects those whom surround you. Those whom slave themselves to your wars. The Huntsmen and Huntresses are your slaves. Your soon-to-be-failures. You train them to fight a pointless war that they will never win. You train them to die against endless hordes of Grimm, an endless tide of destruction that never wanes, never tires, never stops. You know this, and you encourage them to die in this war, with no chance of change, no chance of progress, no chance of salvation. Worse still, you allow them free reign to do whatever they want. Your schools turn their students into dogs without leashes. Teenagers with superpowers. Purported 'Heroes' with so much backing by the kingdoms' propaganda artists that they can legally get away with murder, and worse. You can throw a stone into any corner of the world, and find a crime committed by a Huntsman.

She bellowed out a laugh, and twirled herself around in the air.

"Behold, your children, Ozpin. The children of Remnant, transformed into murderers."

She let her arms go limp.

"My brothers and sisters and I made the Cult of Silver... Look at what you have made, now."

"...That may be true-"

Ozpin hoped that he had caught her off guard with his statement. It didn't look like it bothered her in the slightest.

"-But that does not mean that humanity, as it is, is not worth defending to the last. It is the duty of every person to bring hope to those around them. To bring the chance of peace in our world, no matter where it stands. From the Huntsmen, to the artists, from the musicians, to the teachers, from the soldiers, to the caretakers, and so on, so forth. The people that sacrifice themselves for a better world: They died for a noble cause. A cause worth sacrificing everything for, and I will not allow you to desecrate their memories with your hypocrisy and snake-like words."

"Hollow words, Ozpin. I hear nothing but hollow words. Echoes of dead and dying speeches of empty promises and hope. Words are powerful, but they are nothing without action, and thankfully, yours have just given us the proof we need."

She then looked to the side, and then-

"Did you get all of that, Kasha?"

-A 4 silver-eyed metal creature with hind legs, spikes stretching up from its back, and a portable camera and radio, suddenly appeared near them, as if manifesting from nothingness itself.

An invisibility semblance.

"Loud and clear."

Ozpin's eyes widened, and suddenly, everything made sense.

This woman- Baobhan Sith- Had been counting on him following her to confront her, drawing them out where supposedly no one could see them, using his anger at attacking his students to bait him out, so that when they were on their own, he would ask if she was one of Salems agents, and then...

He had given them all of the proof that they needed.

"And there you go, people of Remnant," Baobhan went as she alternated between the camera and Ozpin, "You may think us mad, but our good friend Ozpin here has confirmed it for you: Salem is real. He said so himself. Salem, the Queen of the Grimm, is true, and she is a threat. Our most hated enemy."

She then threw a hand out to Ozpin, and smiled smugly.

"And what does Ozpin do? Does he actually make any moves against Salem, or does he just react to her? Is he brave, or is he too scared to make a move?"

Ozpin silenced her with 2 green blasts of magic energy from his outstretched hand, one for Baobhan, and the other for 'Kasha'. Both of them dodged them, and Baobhan just continued on as she reformed her sword of silver energy in her hand.

"Another question relating to it: What have the Huntsman academies done to protect you? What have they done to serve you? Do they do community service? Do they help in public parks and services? Do they do even the most basic thing such as helping old ladies across the street, or rescuing cats from trees? No! No they don't! Huntsmen have their pride, and would never allow themselves to do such a baseless thing as helping the common masses!"

Another blast of olive green energy. She backflipped across this, and parried a series of blows as Ozpin charged at her with his cane.

"And think again: What do Huntsmen actually do when out in the field? What is their purpose? What is the point? All of the propaganda makers say that Huntsmen are the greatest heroes in all of Remnant, but what have they accomplished for the kingdoms ever since their inception, that the armies of old could not? Back in the day, before the Great War 80 years ago, sweeping armies of men and women cut down the Grimm in their path, and made way for the greatest cities on all of Remnant, bringing about a golden age for all mankind against the Grimm! But now? Now, we are nothing but weakness! Now, we surrender ourselves to failure, and allow a scant failing few that surrender more and more land to the monsters at our door. A far cry from the empires that we once were."

She teleported to the side as Ozpin launched an entire volley of magic blasts towards her, teleporting from side to side as she continued to rant and monologue without end.

"You know, sometimes, I wonder: Are you the LUCA to all mankind, Ozma?" she said with a sneering smile, "Are one or more of your previous incarnations the Last Universal Common Ancestor for millions of humans and Faunus around the world? Is your blood the alkahest- The universal solvent that may burn and dissolve all other substances? I wonder if that is true. It certainly explains so much about what happens to the people that you poison with your touch, like an acid touching bare skin and the mitochondria within.

Her smile widened.

"Or... Perhaps... One of your children, yes?"

She laughed.

"One of your first batch, at least."

For the first time in a very long time, Ozpin truly saw red.

A giant blast of magic released itself from Ozpin, and into Baobhan, erupting into a fiery green explosion and incinerating the world around them, leaving it all in smouldering ruin. Trees were burnt to ash and cinder, dirt and rock turned to carbon and then to smoke and then to nothing. Everything seemed to devolve and dissolve into nothingness and then less than nothingness, commingling with ash and fire and the twisting sharp smell of burning wood.

Everything around him was turned into a smouldering crater when the smoke cleared. The ground was turning to glass, giving it a glossy shine. Mats of ground were covered a glowing green to orange, and were burning hot to the touch. Flaming embers in the air grew and flew like cherry blossoms.

And in the middle, stood Ozpin and Baobhan, unscathed and unhurt.

And only one of them was pleased about it.

"I'm sorry," Baobhan said with an apologetic sincerity to her, placing her arm upon her chest as she went, "That was cruel of me. I'm cruel and a bully, sometimes. It's one of my many flaws. I may not like you, Ozpin- I may hate you- But, in all fairness, that was just too much from me, even by my standards."

Ozpin just glared at her, silently, his lips curved into a slight frown, his eyes smouldering with veiled anger.

He didn't often get angry, but today, he would make an exception for this woman.

Baobhan twirled her sword in her hand, and then... Let it fall limply to the side.

"I assume now that my words have... Well, I don't know if galvanized is the right word, but, let us continue, shall we?"

She spread her arms out wide-

"As recompense, I shall let you have the first blow."

-And Ozpin charged forwards.

Sword and cane clashed together in an orchestra of destruction and creation of destruction. Whole scores of trees and mats of ground were torn apart by the force of their blows and the power of their attacks. Trees were ripped into splinters and shards as ash and hot shards of dirt and fresh glass was kicked up and thrown around like tsunamis as they warred and warred and warred against each other.

And all the while, Ozpin could only ask himself:

How did they know so much about him? About Salem? About the both of them?

How did they know so much?

* * *

Another explosion near him, and Jaune brought forth a shield of aura to take the damage for him as the ice fluttered and flowed around him, the air filling with snow and smoke as he dissipated his shield, only for a series of missile rounds to soar down at him, forcing him to throw up his bubble shield once more as-

{BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM}

-Exploded all around him, melting away the ice around him as the fire continued to lick and scrape at his aura, the bubble shield dissipating around him as he pulled his sword and shield out once more, ready to face the enemy once more.

For a few moments, he looked behind himself, towards the lines of initiates, and yelled out, "Everyone who wants to fight, get up here and fight! Everyone else who can't or won't stay where you are! We'll keep you safe!"

None of the hundreds of initiates went to join him. Some, like the ginger jock- Cardin- Looked away. Some, like the one called Weiss (Whom was being tended to by Ryuzu), Gestured to their low dust and ammo supply, or to their wounds. Some, like the onyx-haired girl he now knew was called Blake, just shook their heads or looked him dead in the eye.

The few initiates who still wanted to fight were still in the fight. The rest had seen enough battle for one day.

He looked around, and towards the likes of Anima and her boys, trying to pull more people into the fight. Every few seconds, one of them would call out some variation of a rallying cry to pull more people into the fight, to which they would be completely ignored each time.

With a whistle, Jaune called them back to the frontlines, and with an understanding nod, he got the message across: They had done enough for today. He wouldn't judge them any less.

None of them dared to look him in the eye.

_**YOU'RE A LOT BETTER AT THIS THAN MOST LEADERS.** _

_You think?_

_**I KNOW.** _

To his side, Coco looked at him, and at all of the aura that he was using and manipulating, and asked in confusion, "How are you- Hey kid, how are you doing all of that?"

It was his turn to look at her in confusion, "What?"

"Your aura! How are you doing all of that shield stuff with it? I'd say that it's your semblance-"

It's not."

"Then how are you doing all of that stuff? How've you not burnt out of aura, yet?"

Jaune blinked, _You can, what? You can run out of aura?!_

_**YEP.** _

_**YES.** _

_**IT'S HOW I DIED, BIG BRO!** _

_What? Are there more of- You know what? Now's not the time. What do you mean that you can run out of aura? I thought aura was... What was it, magic, or something?_

_**SOUL MAGIC, FOR LACK OF A BETTER WORD. AND YES, YOU CAN RUN OUT OF IT. AURA IS THEORISED TO BE THE MANIFESTATION OF PEOPLE'S SOULS, AND EVERY PERSON HAS A SET AMOUNT OF AURA TO THEIR NAME. SOME JUST HAVE LARGER AMOUNTS THAN OTHERS.** _

_…What?_

**_NOT ONLY THAT, BUT OUR AURA IS ALSO LIKE A FUEL. IT CAN RUN OUT OVER TIME, DEPENDING ON HOW MANY TIMES WE USE OUR AURA AS A SHIELD TO TANK PHYSICAL BLOWS, AS WELL AS HOW MANY TIMES WE USE OUR SEMBLANCES, LIKE WE SAID, IT USES AS A FUEL._ **

_…That's dumb._

**_WHAT?_ **

_THAT'S DUMB! What- Some people just have more soul juice than other people!? What does that mean?!_

**_IT'S NOT CONFIRMED, JAUNE. ULTIMATELY, AURA IS STILL AS MUCH A MYSTERY TO US NOW AS IT WAS WHEN IT WAS FIRST DISCOVERED. NO ONE KNOWS WHY SOME PEOPLE HAVE HIGHER AURA COUNTS THAN OTHERS, OR HOW SEMBLANCES ACTUALLY WORK, CONSIDERING HOW THEY REGULARLY BEND THE KNOWN LAWS OF REALITY TO THEIR WHIM WHEN USED. SCHOLARS AND THEOLOGISTS JUST LIKE TO SAY THAT AURA IS REPRESENTATIVE OF OUR SOULS BECAUSE OF HOW OUR SEMBLANCES SEEM TO REFLECT OUR PERSONALITIES, IN A WAY._ **

Jaune blinked, and then internally nodded to himself. That... Well, he still had a lot of questions, but that would work for him, at least for now.

Nearby, he heard the bunny Faunus on Coco's team call out inquisitively, "Those with high counts of aura can manipulate them into creating Aura Constructs, bodies of aura made physical and shaped into tools. Blacksmiths, they're called."

"Oh, so like you, Velvet?" Coco asked.

'Velvet' nodded, "Yeah, like me."

**_YOU SEE? THAT'S THE OFFICIAL DESIGNATION FOR HUNTSMEN LIKE YOU: BLACKSMITHS._ **

_Huh?_

**_THERE ARE 3 MAIN ARCHETYPES, YOU KNOW. STRIKERS, BLACKSMITHS, AND SKIRMISHERS._ **

_Like the Fighter Mage Thief trio in video games?_

**_…SURE. NOT THE COMPARISON I WAS EXPECTING, BUT, YEAH. HOWEVER, FOR NOW-_ **

{KA-BOOM}

_**-YOU SHOULD REALLY GET BACK INTO THE FIGHT.** _

"Ah, shit!" Jaune went as he threw up another aura shield and jumped out of the way, an explosion of fire and dirt rippling out besides him as he used his other shield to deflect a round of bullets coming at him.

Rolling to the side and behind a mound of dirt that had been kicked up in the fighting, he felt his aura churn within him as he twirled his sword in his hand, watching the lines of Huntsmen and Huntresses clashing with the lines of cultists coming at them.

It was a warzone, pure and simple.

Tracer fire and rockets filled the air as mortars from both sides peppered the Emerald Forest into a smoking hellscape of fire and ash. Smoke and snow filtered through the air as ice battled against the heat. Huntsmen and Huntresses of all types clashed blades with the Cult of Silver as their heavy weapons and vehicles filled the world with flame and death, firing off missiles and cannon blasts into the crowds of Huntsmen with abandon. Up in the air, the dogfight continued on as the Bullheads and airships of Vale clashed and danced with the small, yet powerful navy of the Cult of Silver, great plumes of blue and orange light stretching and dividing the sky above into cross-sections and patterns and shapes of all sorts. Vapour trails polluted the sky as rainclouds began to form overhead, threatening to split the heavens open onto the ground below.

Throwing a rabid Sinful to the side, before applying a swift kick to the head to knock it out, Jaune looked over the battlefield, and saw that the lines were holding. To his left, Pyrrha and her familiar were supporting the recently arrived Anima, Russel, Dove, and Sky, whilst Nana bounced between cultist after cultist, and took down each and every one with assassin-like skill. To his right, he could make out Ruby and Yang fighting alongside a group of Huntsmen and Huntresses that they seemed familiar with- Including a Huntsman that looked remarkably like Yang. Her father, perhaps?- Fighting against a large cluster of cultists, including 2 of the-

The aspects!

2 of them, the almost robotic one with the weird rifle, and the big bulky black and blue one with the fire cannon, were fighting against Ruby, Yang, and their collection of Huntsmen and Huntresses. Jaune surrendered to the urge to go and help them, and felt his legs begin to move to where they were, as-

"WOO-HOO!"

{KA-BOOM KA-BOOM KA-BOOM KA-BOOM KA-BOOM KA-BOOM}

Well, at least Nora was keeping herself entertained.

Behind him, the recently healed and rescued Nora Valkyrie, now covered in a salvaged silver cloak, was somehow warped 2 grenade launchers, similar to her original weapon before it was... Destroyed? Whatever happened to it? Whatever. There she was, with 2 glowing white grenade launchers, throwing out pink blast after pink blast into the cult forces, crackles and explosions rippling out and sending scores of cultists flying and soaring through the air, before launching flat on the ground as waves of pink smoke fluttered up into the air above.

"Nora!" Ren called out to the manic Nora over the booms and bangs.

"Yes, Renny!?"

"Those guns," he gestured to the glowing cannons in her arms before they were willed away into nothingness in a flash of pink lightning, "How are you doing that!?"

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Nora cried out a laugh as suddenly, a giant war hammer formed in her hands, "I HAVE NO IDEA!" and as she let out a whistle and summoned an eagle down from the air, she followed it down into the battlefield below, swinging her glowing hammer around with abandon as she slung it into the knees of a Warden of Faith, before running up its body and-

{CRACK}

-Slamming it right into its armoured head, grinning and laughing all of the way.

…Yep, at least she was having fun.

Jaune winced as he blocked another trio of bullets with his shield, before looking back to the others behind him and calling out, "Can you guys take care of yourselves?!"

Pyrrha looked at him, but it was Anima who answered with, "We'll be able to hold out on this front, provided Nora doesn't get herself almost killed again!"

"I'm on it!"

"Ren's on it," Anima gave him a nod, "Go help Ruby."

Jaune gave her a nod as well, "Thanks!" and with that, he began to run through the streams of bullet and ice and fire, almost slipping on a patch of black ice next to a few-

"Hgh!"

He tried not to vomit.

Nearby, on the ground, laid several bodies, all of them fellow initiates. Their bodies were riddled with bullet holes, their forms vivisected and torn apart. One of them had their head split open, spilling their brains out onto the floor, whilst another had been cut in half lengthways, their body split in half as their organs spilt out onto the ground below.

They had all died screaming, their mouth and eyes wide as their blood was frozen beneath them, like meat in a freezer, preserved for later. An ice attack had paved over them, leaving their skin glistening and covered in frost, their blood still and unmoving as it shone with a frozen glow.

Jaune looked away. He didn't know if it was in disgust, anger, or apathy.

Probably all of them.

He scowled, at the cult and at himself- _Enough with the self-pitying bullshit_ \- And continued his run through the battlefield around him, dodging bullets and blades and the like as he danced between mats of glowing hot ground and sheets of black ice and frozen blood that threatened to slip up anyone who wasn't careful with their step, until finally-

"Jaune!?"

-He made it to Ruby's side and deflected a bullet coming at her with his shield, as he looked at her and said, "Hey Ruby... What happened to your weapon?"

Ruby looked down at her hands, with burn sleeves and exposed skin, and scowled, "Lost it. Got destroyed... My baby got unbabied…" before looking up at him and going, "Why are you up here?"

"You looked like you needed the help," he gestured to the 2 Aspects ahead of them, "Against those guys."

"Ah," Ruby went, "I get it."

"This a friend of yours," that tall Huntsman, a fellow blond, but with stubble around his jawline and a soul patch on his chin, lilac eyes, and an outfit that very much matched the colour scheme of Yang- Okay, he was really beginning to suspect that this was-

"Dad, this is Jaune. Jaune, this is dad."

Ah, so he was their-

**_TAI..._ **

_Summer?_

The larger Huntsman, 'Tai'(?) Gestured to him, and just said, "Nice cloak."

"Huh?" Jaune then looked down at his still shimmering aura cloak, and blinked, "Oh, thanks-"

{BANG}

{PFWIT}

A bullet whizzed past them, reminding them of the battle around them, and as they moved to defend themselves once more, the 2 Aspects up front, firing off into the crowd around them, began to march towards them, guns blazing, just as-

{WHIP}

"Augh!"

-A fleshy tendril whipped at Yang, slamming her into the ground as-

"Well well well, would you look at that..."

Draugr, the Aspect of Interest, Upyr, the Aspect of Joy, and Lilith and Lamia, the Aspects of Amusement, as well as their twin servants in white and red, approached them from the side, all smiles and joyful attitudes and covered in splatters of blood that was not theirs. They must've broken away from where Miss Goodwitch had been fighting them, and had come to greet them personally.

"2 Silver-Eyed Warriors for the price of one... Well, one by proxy, at least."

To their other side, a pair of 4-legged droids marched towards them, their optics and luminescent systems turning orange as between them walked the last of the Aspects- Barring the girl with the black dress and white hair, of course- Being a lithe boy dressed in silver armour, with glowing orange patterns covering it, as well as 2 spindly drones hovering around it, with mechanical limbs and fans built into it around its glowing orange optic, projecting a blue hardlight shield around him as he walked.

All of the Aspects gathered around them in a semi-circle, reddened teeth showing, and silver eyes shimmering like sunlight against water.

"Hey there, Cihuateteo," Lilith nodded to the armoured boy as he continued to tap on his datapad, "Nice of you to join us," the boy just gave them a nod, and she turned to the gathered crew of trainees and trained Huntsmen and Huntresses, "Sorry, that's Cihuateteo, the Aspect of Awe over there. He's not much of a talker."

'Cihuateteo' just shrugged.

Lilith then let out a giggle, "You know, I have to say, Orion," she directed towards Jaune, "You've had quite a few surprises for us, haven't you? Perhaps some that you never knew yourself, yes?" she laughed, "No wonder you were named after the Mother Dragon..."

Jaune just narrowed his eyes at the green-haired twin.

"Oh, don't give me that look, Orion. After all, look at us," she gestured to the gathered Aspects around them, "Almost all of us together, like one big happy family. Let us make such treasured memories together, yes?"

"I already told Baobhan Sith that I will never join her, or her cult," to his side, Ruby spoke up defiantly, throwing her hand to the side as she spoke, "I don't care how many times you try to show me my mum's corpse: Nothing you say or do will make me say otherwise."

Tai looked down to her, "Ruby... They have... What?"

Lilith chuckled once more, "Oh, poor, dear Ruby Rose... As we have been told many times-"

Their weapons and tools shone-

"-We can be very persuasive."

-And then they struck.

Jaune pulled up his shield as Upyr, with sharp shining teeth smothered in red, launched himself down at him and threw his blood made tendrils from his back into his shield, before he launched himself off of Jaune's shield, serving as a distraction for the big bulky brawler of an Aspect to charge at him and-

"Gotcha!"

{CRASH}

-Swing his arm like a mace into the boy, knocking him down into the ground-

_**JAUNE!** _

_**AH, HE'LL BE FINE.** _

-Before he was picked up by the head, his metal palm pressed against his face, and lifted up into the air by the burly Aspect.

_**OKAY, MAYBE LESS THAN FINE.** _

The Aspect just guffawed, "I got him!"

{BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG}

Just then, 2 entire pistol clips worth of bullets were emptied into the armoured back of the Aspect, not wounding him thanks to all of the metal on him, but surprising him as a sudden, much larger blow slammed itself into the back of the Aspect, and then flipped off as he let go of Jaune-

"Oh, I don't got him!"

-Just as he activated the first spare semblance that had been given to him-

{BURST}

-And sidestepped to the right in a flurry of white petals, just as the shape landed back onto the ground-

"Nana?"

-And uncurled herself to look at him, "Hey Jaune."

"What are you doing over here?"

"You looked like you needed the help," Nana said to him.

He chuckled as he picked himself back up, "That's my line."

"And besides," she shrugged, "That's what friends are for, right?"

He blinked, "I'm your friend? Really?"

She shrugged, "Hell yeah. Why not?"

Nearby, Ruby, Yang, and Tai looked at him for a moment in shock, "How did you..." one of them began, before they realised where they were and got back into the fight.

And speaking of which, Jaune and Nana then ducked down as the 2 walker droids nearby fired out a stream of orange-

"Are those lasers?!"

"I don't know! I'm trying not to let them hit me!"

-Energy bursts from its underside guns, whilst their master, Cihuateteo, remained safe within his hardlight shields, just as-

"Sir!"

"Tai-Guy!"

-A blue armoured Huntsman with a rocket cannon on his shoulder and a sword in his hand, and a Huntress in a really frilly blue, white, and gold dress with a cannon that looked like it shot out hardlight made sawblades, running up to them and firing into the gathered Aspects around them, several of the blue Huntsman's missile rounds going right into the cyborg Aspect with the weird rifle-

{FWOOSH}

-Only for him to pull up a sickly black bubble around him-

{FIZZLE}

-Which disintegrated the missiles as soon as they touched the barrier.

The blue armoured Huntsman just tilted his helmeted head back, "Huh."

Aiming his glowing green rifle again, the cyborg Aspect fired off another round with a loud-

{BANG}

-That whizzed right into his shoulder cannon, and began to disintegrate it. The blue armoured Huntsman had to detach it from his body before the festering rot took him too, before throwing it at Draugr, only for her to shift her mass and avoid it, as she, Lilith, and Lamia, charged at Ruby, the latter girl in question jumping to the side via a rose petal burst as she threw her arms back, then forwards, and-

{ZAP ZAP ZAP}

-Threw 3 rounds of silver electricity into them, one for each Aspect, shocking them, but not stopping them as they continued to duel with her, threatening to overwhelm her as Cihuateteo focused his machines on taking down both Yang and Tai, firing plasma shot after plasma shot into them as they jumped and dodged and skirted around each blast, sweat and blood pouring off of them as the girl in the frilly white, blue, and gold dress decided to duel with the spindly and bloodthirsty Upyr, throwing him off of her arm as he chomped into it, but getting grazed and grazed and-

{STAB}

"AUGH!"

-Getting stabbed in the thigh by his sharpened blood tentacles, whilst Nana and Jaune continued to duel against the Bulky Aspect as he threw them around like ragdolls, slamming them into the ground with his sheer weight alone, and almost burning them under pure blue fire- The hottest known type of fire- As their skin boiled and then suffered from ice burns as they then released cold attack after cold attack onto them.

They were growing tired, and battered, and worn.

For Nana, Jaune, Yang, and Ruby, they had been woken up earlier than they should've been, thrown into a forest and expected to fight to survive way into the morning, and had been doing just that all the way into the afternoon.

Fatigue was starting to set in.

Even with his boost in aura, he was starting to tire. The wounds and injuries and aches that he had suffered earlier in the day were beginning to return.

His aura cloak was beginning to fade into nothingness.

They were running out of steam, and he couldn't allow that. Not when they were fighting for their lives.

So, he turned to the only person- The only people(?)- That could help.

_Summer?_

**_YES?_ **

_You said that there were 8 semblances waiting for me, right?_

**_…JAUNE-_ **

_Are there any semblance that can help get rid of fatigue?_

**_WELL, YES, BUT-_ **

_Let me use it._

**_JAUNE, IT'S NOT-_ **

_If I don't, then we all might die here, Summer._

**_BUT THE CONDITIONS THAT IT WILL LEAVE YOU IN WILL-_ **

**_HE'LL LEARN._ **

**_DON'T YOU DARE-_ **

**_HE'LL LEARN, SUMMER. GODS... HE'LL HAVE TO. AND IT'S LIKE HE SAID: THEY'LL DIE IF HE DOESN'T._ **

**_…FINE._ **

_Thank you._

And as the bulky Aspect's foot was about to slam into his chest-

_**SEMBLANCE: FATIGUELESS.** _

-He suddenly doubled over, and collapsed to the ground.

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

How much longer did the battle last for?

He didn't know.

He wasn't sure what was what, anymore.

All he could hear around him were muffled noises.

All that he could see was darkness underneath eyelids too tired to open.

Tilting his head to the side, he struggled, and struggled, with all of his might, and then...

He forced them open.

He was behind the lines, with the rest of the initiates- The wounded and the struggling as the chaos continued to erupt around them, lights in the sky and on the ground around them that were far too bright and far too loud. Everything was blending together into a cacophony of madness and swirling symphonies of muffled sound and milky colours, as he felt his head being tilted up, and-

Ah, there was Nana, looking at him with a panicked expression. She didn't looked tired anymore, at least. That was a good sign.

Though she looked frightened. Why did she look scared? Did something happen to her? He had to-

He couldn't move.

Everything was growing darker, and darker, and darker, and darker, and-

_**JAUNE, STAY WITH ME!** _

-Finally-

_**JAUNE!** _

-He slipped away, into the inky darkness.

* * *

Ruby didn't know what happened not too long ago.

One minute they were fighting against the Aspects, and then the next, Jaune somehow used an exact replica of her own semblance- Did he have a copy semblance, perhaps- Before doubling over at the same time that all of the fatigue and weariness that she had accumulated over the day suddenly vanished, and passed out on the floor.

Was that something to do with his semblance? It must be, surely.

After checking that Nana had successfully got Jaune back into friendly lines, Ruby found herself unable to focus on anything else other than the battle before her. Cihuateteo's machines continued to fire at her as she threw out another round of electricity from her arms, before summoning forth into her hands the silver scythe from earlier, twirling it around before-

{CLASH}

-Using it to block both Lilith and Lamia's sword attacks, their clash continuing on and on as they continued to duel and duel, steel clashing against light made physical, and the sounds of blades scraping against each other filling the air sharp, ugly noises of metal against metal as they twirled and danced with each other.

But, even with her fatigue gone- Even with her fresh weaknesses dissolved into nothingness...

She was still loosing.

They were still loosing.

"I see you got a little boost," Lamia chuckled darkly as she grabbed Ruby by the hood and threw her over her head, right into the ground before the green-haired woman raised her foot to stamp her head into the cold, wet mud, "Though it won't be enough."

And on that- As she burst away in a flutter of petals at just the right moment- They were agreed.

Even being no longer tired, Yang and Dad, though less sluggish and more alert than before, were still being stomped on by all of the other Aspects, from Cihuateteo to Upyr, and even she, with her new silver eye powers, was being beaten back by both of the Cult of Silver's twin pairs, the Aspects of Amusement and their twin black-haired servants in red and white, forcing her to dodge talon swipe after heel kick, flipping from side to side as, without her Crescent Rose, she found herself being kicked and punched and beaten down as she fell herself being forced down onto her knees, in the mud and muck, as the cultists just continued to wail and wail on her.

 _Please_ , she thought to herself, _Please, someone... Help us._

And then, as if she was blessed by divine intervention...

It came.

From the edges of the forest, out shot Baobhan Sith, flailing through the air, but quickly recovering herself as she jumped back onto her feet.

Ozpin followed shortly afterwards, followed by the Aspect with metal skin and a camera. Green flame-like energy flowed off of Ozpin, as his face remained as stoic as ever, but his eyes burned with emotions that she couldn't possibly, or didn't want to, imagine.

Silver sword and cane met each other in a great-

{CLASH}

-That silenced the entire battlefield, before weapon slammed against weapon once more, and then...

They began to duel.

Their battle was like a dance, a ballet, a play's main symphony as silver met green met silver met green all over again in brilliant technicolour flashes and bursts of light, each strike clapping like thunder and stinging like lightning. The entire battlefield was silenced and stood still to watch as Baobhan and Ozpin continued their duet and duel together, as if they were the main attraction to the great performance that was the battle of the Emerald Forest. It seemed like even the ships above had fallen silent as all attention was drawn towards these 2 great leaders solving their differences through steel and iron.

Baobhan dodged and parried a sting of blows from Ozpin with the grace of a dancer, and then threw her sword at him like a rocket, only to teleport to his side once he dodged it and caught it in her hand, throwing it down at him as-

{VOMPF}

-Like Jaune's fancy bubble shield, he summoned a gold and green energy barrier around him as-

{SLAM}

-Baobhan's sword came down on it, only-

{SLAM}

-To falter-

{SLAM}

-As Baobhan-

{SLAM}

-Continued-

{SLAM}

-To hit-

{SLAM}

-And hit-

{SLAM}

-And hit-

{SLAM}

-And hit-

{SLAM}

-Until-

{SLAM}

{VOMPF}

-It fizzled out into nothing.

Baobhan smiled.

Ozpin said nothing.

He threw up his cane to continue the fight-

{STAB}

-But Baobhan pressed her silver sword into the cane's top mechanism, twisted-

{CRACK}

{SPLINTER}

-And broke his cane into nothingness.

And then, Ozpin... He did something both truly remarkable, and utterly horrifying...

He froze.

He froze up at the sight of his cane being destroyed...

That was all Baobhan needed, as she planted her heel into his gut-

{KICK}

-And sent him flying across the battlefield.

Ozpin... He was known as the greatest Huntsman who had ever lived... He had been called that...

And he had failed.

Baobhan looked to the failed Ozpin, and smiled. Lazily kicking away the shambled remains of his cane weapon, she looked to the man as he picked himself back up, still desperately trying to continue the fight, and said, "I think the point has been proven, Ozpin. I can't kill you-"

Her smile was once more all teeth.

"-But I will destroy you."

She lulled her head to the side.

"You're smart enough to know the difference."

She then willed her sword away, and pulled something out of her pocket. Pressing down on it, she seemed to stagger in pain, but stilled herself as she looked over to her fellow Aspects, and hummed out, "I think we've overstayed our welcome, don't you think?"

Suddenly, every cultist around them, from Baobhan to the Aspects to even the common grunts, began to glow an ethereal silver.

"Oh, and Ruby?"

Her head perked up at the sound of her name, and the black coffin from before suddenly appeared next to her. She had forgotten it was there. Had it been floating in the air this entire time?

"You can keep the body. I have no use for it. Consider it... Our parting gift."

She shivered under the stare that Baobhan gave her.

"I... I-"

"Shhhh..."

Suddenly, Baobhan teleported right in front of her, and pressed a finger to her lips.

"Think on it, will you? Oh, and don't bother trying to find us."

Baobhan leaned down, and kissed her on the forehead. Ruby had never felt so violated.

"When the time comes," she whispered in a sickly sweet voice, "We will come and hear your answer for ourselves."

She giggled.

"You and Orions."

_Jaune…_

As the ethereal glow swept over her, she waved-

"Until next time."

-And then, she and every single living cultist in the Emerald Forest, as well as their war machines and droids, suddenly blinked out of existence.

Up in the air, the Cult of Silver's navy was pulling out. The remaining troop carriers that weren't grounded attached themselves to the warship in the air, as did the fighters. The sky platforms retracted into the warship as its engines were brought back to life, as it began to sail through the air, up and around the clouds, until...

It was suddenly gone.

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

Everything was quiet.

Everyone was quiet.

No one dared to move a muscle.

No one dared to speak.

Had they won this battle?

Or had they lost?

…

…

…

…

"The ship..."

Ruby's eyes widened-

"The ship!"

-And then suddenly, she began to burst across the former battlefield in rose petal cloud after rose petal cloud, going the fastest that she had ever gone before-

"I need someone who knows how to defuse bombs! The people inside the ship have got bomb collars around their necks!"

-She almost slammed into the side of the ship, shouldering past Miss Goodwitch as she jumped into the slanted corridors of the grounded troop carrier, having finally burnt out her aura for the day, as she typed in the code on the door panel-

"Oh god, what was the code that Nana put in... Here, here, this one, and... This one? Yes! This one!"

-And then slid it wide open.

"Okay then everyone, sit tight! We're going to... No..."

Everyone inside of the ship's hold was gone.

Not dead, but gone...

Just gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are! The long awaited end to the battle of the Emerald Forest! God, we've really come a long way, haven't we? This has honestly felt like shonen arc levels of stretching out!
> 
> And we're not even at the end, yet!
> 
> That's right, we've still got to cover the aftermath, so hold onto your pants, people!
> 
> That being said, I do want to address something:
> 
> Yesterday, as of writing this, I got a complaint on Ao3 (I'm posting these stories on Archive Of Our Own, by the way, so go check them out, saying that I had made it all about the OCs, how they were too unbeatable, and asking why I didn't just take out the RWBY bit and make it its own thing. So, allow me to address those points, which I said to him (I'm basically just copying, paraphrasing and editing what I said to him for all of you, so bare with me):
> 
> This is part of the RWBYverse because I wanted it to be. I didn't want to make it its own thing, I wanted to write it as a RWBY fanfiction.
> 
> And besides, would everyone reading this- Every single person- Rather I wrote all of the new guys as complete pushovers that presented no challenge to the original cast. They're not unbeatable, as has been shown during this arc when they are caught off guard, they're not totally invincible, they're just really hard to defeat, and that presents an entertaining challenge for the main characters to overcome, otherwise then what's the point? It's like Salem- She's immortal, for lack of a better word, therefore she's a difficult challenge for our heroes to defeat. And be fair, this is right before those same heroes got into Beacon- This is their initiation- So RWBY and JNPR haven't received their Beacon training yet, or even formed their teams yet.
> 
> The Cult exists in the RWBY universe and are really strong for a reason. I just haven't revealed it yet, and probably won't for a very long time, because, you know, plot.
> 
> And besides, if the main enemy of the protagonists are weak, then its not fun to watch the good guys eventually triumph over them, is it?
> 
> And it's not like I'm just replacing the original cast with nothing but OCs and making it into some self-insert story (Of which I am fully aware of the reputation of those fics). And I'm aware that I have a whole cast of canonical characters, but let's be fair, a million other stories have done something like that: Make a story with nothing but the original cast. And to be honest, a lot of those stories generally follow the baseline plot of the original show whilst only changing a few details. It's entertaining at first, but then gets boring after a while, at least in my opinion. And it ends up becoming a bit stifling for me, and I would rather do my own thing and create new premises rather than follow this basic formula, hence why my RWBY stories generally follow the main cast against new OC villains and organisations rather than just redoing 'RWBY vs Salem' like so many other stories. Like you said, there's an entire main cast of characters, but there is also a lot of potential for new ideas and concepts within the RWBY universe which I feel don't get exploited and explored enough by the fandom.
> 
> I kinda cheated a bit with Ascendancy, since it's still Hunters vs Grimm, but I've added enough differences to the Grimm itself to make them stand out as something completely different to anything that's ever been done before in the FNDM. Here, I'm doing the complete opposite and just making a brand new set of villains. It's just more entertaining for me, and hopefully for all of you, than just recycling Salem and Cinder as the main villains all over again.
> 
> So yeah, the Cult and its members are strong. Of course they are. If they weren't, then what's the point of having them as the main threat if they can just easily be beaten by the heroes? And yes, the main threat are all OCs, because I'm bored of seeing Salem and Cinder as the main threat over and over again, and I want to do something new. And no, the Cult are not unbeatable, as I have shown that they actually can be beaten by the actions of the initiates in the Emerald Forest alone, since they were kicking each others butts down there right up until the end.
> 
> So, with that all said and done, leave a review, follow and favourite, stay safe, stay healthy, and I shall see you all next time!
> 
> Titanmaster117 out!


	14. Beacon part 12: A Much Needed Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A conversation is had, and another is set up...

**Main theme:** _[Death Hymn by Lucas King](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmTN8wu2AM8)  
_**Arc theme:** _[Rise from the Destiny 2 soundtrack](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=intmEEVphig)_  
**Theme:** [_Athanasia from the Destiny 2: Beyond Light soundtrack_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMSiPRgsJvI)

* * *

He pulled himself out from his slumber, and opened his eyes.

A dreamless sleep, for once.

The sterile light was blinding, pure unnatural light threatening to burn his eyes into nothingness as he forced himself to adjust to the light. Something continued to let out a beeping sound nearby, and with a wince, he turned his arm to try and silence the noise, but-

{CREAK}

{RUSTLE}

-Something stopped him.

Something was connected to his arm.

It felt like...

A needle.

In a panic, he threw himself up from whatever he had been laying in, and wrenched his arm to the side-

Nearby, someone noticed, "Beep boop!"

{RIP}

{SPURT}

-And pulled whatever was in his arms out with a splatter of blood.

As the needle and cord swayed from side to side against the blood transfusion set, he finally realised where he was.

A hospital?

Actually, no, an infirmary.

Beacon's infirmary.

Why was he here? Wasn't he perfectly fine? And besides, if he wasn't fine, shouldn't he be at a proper hospital, instead of a school's infirmary? Was that something that happened regularly with Huntsmen?

"Beep boop…"

He blinked.

"S-Stella?"

And indeed it was, the girl with stars in her eyes, dressed this time in a nurse's outfit, pressing the palms of her shaking hands together as she swayed from side to side uncomfortably, looking quite frightful as she stared at him with wide, flinching eyes.

"Ah..."

He had just...

He'd frightened her.

He looked away, and winced himself, "S... I'm... I'm s-sorry."

She looked away as well, "B-Beep boop…"

"...R... Right."

He looked at his hand, and realised what had been going on. He had lost a lot of blood, hadn't he? Back in the Emerald Forest. She was just doing a transfusion. Or, at least, she was overseeing someone as they had been giving him a blood transfusion. He wasn't too sure.

He looked down at himself, and saw that he hadn't been changed out of his clothes at least, though he had been covered by a thin sheet on the thin hospital bed that he had been laying on.

…

…

…

…

He couldn't stay here.

He just couldn't.

Bad memories, and all.

A shaking hand ghosted itself over his bloody arm. He looked to the side and found that Stella had healed his arm with but a single touch.

He knew- He somehow knew- That Stella didn't mean anything bad about it, but...

But still...

"I-I need to l-leave," Jaune muttered to her as he pulled himself up, a pain in his thigh shooting outwards, as well as in his shoulder, causing him to wince again at the dull aching in his body, but not stopping him as he forced himself out of the bed and onto his feet, screwing his eyes shut, but not paying it any more mind as he did before as he began to walk, noticing his sword on the side as he quickly-

{SWIPE)

-It from the table nearby, and looked back at Stella with an apologetic look-

"S-Sorry, I just... Sorry."

"Beep boop…"

-And then left.

(He didn't notice that Yang, Ruby, and Tai had been there as well until later.)

Walking down the corridors-

Yep, this was definitely Beacon Academy, though why had he been taken here instead of to, what was it called? The Greater Valerian Medical Centre? Yeah, there. Why hadn't he been sent over to the GVMC? Then again, maybe he was just wasn't injured enough to warrant being sent down to Vale below.

-He noticed the limp in his steps, and looked down at the still bloody hole in his trousers. Looking down his trousers, he noticed the ugly scar on his legs, and massaged his aching shoulder. His breathing was still shallow, but he was getting by, at least.

Others passed him in the corridors. All of them students, a few of them even being still-wounded former initiates. The initiates all avoided him. A few students asked him if he was alright. But in the end, all of them let him be.

Not their problem.

Pushing himself into the empty locker room from earlier today-

Today? Was it the same day as he had passed out? He had looked out one of the windows earlier. It was evening. Ships were bustling in and out of the school ground. He hadn't seen what was going on in Vale itself.

-He found his original locker, and fumbled in the keycode on the pad next to the door.

In an instant, the door opened up, and his cloak clumsily fell out onto the ground.

Huh? Hadn't he put it in more carefully?

Maybe he hadn't.

He really didn't need his mind playing more tricks on him than it already did.

_…_

**_…_ **

_…_

**_…_ **

Summer, and every other voice in his head, remained silent.

His sword started to hum against his waist. Something inside him was telling him to look at it.

Without a word, he picked up his white and gold cloak and threw it over his shoulders, before closing and securing the locker behind him, and making his way through the corridors of Beacon Academy once more, hoping to find an empty classroom, or just a room in general, where he could-

There. An unused classroom. Perfect.

During on the lights to the dim classroom, and then closing and locking the door behind him as he walked out into the middle of the classroom, now lit by a much softer, and easier on the eyes artificial light, he pulled up Crocea Mors, placed it into both of his hands.

Easing his grip around the sheath and the sword's handle, he pulled his seemingly glowing blade out of its scarab...

And, upon looking at his blade, was met with a pair of silver eyes looking at him through the metal.

Jaune did his best not to jump as he focused himself on the silver eyes looking through his blade like a glass mirror. There was more than just the silver eyes. They were connected to a face, with soft, yet also sharp features. Pale skin with rosy cheeks, with black to red hair tied partly behind herself, with a white cloak tied around her shoulders, and a saddened expression on her face.

Summer Rose.

_"Jaune…"_

"Summer."

He looked away from his sword for a few moments as he placed his scarab back onto his belt and held Crocea Mors into one hand, twisting it against the light as he looked at the face shining against the blade.

He winced against the shine of the light, "How is this... How are you... How are you talking to me?"

 _"I don't really know,"_ Summer responded with, though somehow Jaune was only able to hear it in his head, " _I think... I think I'm just... Think of this as a sort of... Manifestation into your world."_

"The real world?"

_"One of them, at least."_

"What does that mean?"

_"I-I'd rather not say."_

"Well, I'd rather you did," Jaune scowled as he glared at the face projected onto Crocea Mors, "I've got a- You know, I've got a lot of questions, for you."

_"I-I imagine."_

"Do you? Do you really? Do you even-" Jaune looked away, a frown on his face as he turned around and narrowed his eyes on the visage of Summer, "Do you know how long you've fucked me over, Summer?"

_"I know."_

"Do you know how long you- I thought I was going mad! Gods, I was mad!"

_"I know."_

"Do you know how fucked up I was?!" he almost screamed at the blade. Perhaps he was being inconsiderate at the moment, but right now, he didn't care, "I- Oh god, was that you, in my head, all those years ago?"

_"..."_

"The one who wouldn't stop screaming?"

_"...Yes."_

For the longest time in his life, Jaune had despised the voices in his head.

For the longest time, he had utterly hated what he had thought to be his insanity. His, what, schizophrenia? An undiagnosed mental illness that he was disturbingly aware of?

It felt less like an illness and more like a madness.

And now, to learn that what he thought was an illness... To learn that it wasn't an illness at all. It- It felt like a betrayal. A betrayal of himself, by himself, and by- By another.

He didn't know anything anymore.

He didn't think he wanted to.

"Oh my god, do you-" he tilted himself away from his sword, tweezing the bridge between his eyes, before looking back to his sword and going, "Do you know what you made me do?!"

_"Oh, don't try to pretend that what happened at Tipoca was purely my fault, Jaune! I have accepted my part of the blame! You should accept your share as well!"_

Jaune just growled, and resisted the urge to chuck his sword across the room, and just settled on asking, "How are you even in my head?"

 _"I don't know,"_ was Summer's answer.

"Surely you must. You're the one who-"

 _"I came into your head screaming, Jaune. I- We were connected to you because I- We died! Do you think-"_ then, a pause, _"Hang on, do- Do you think I wanted to be with you? Do you think I wanted to die and suddenly pop up in your- Ugh!"_

"No, I-"

 _"I didn't get a choice, Orion!"_ she said his old name with a sharp degree of spite, _"I didn't get a choice! I died! I died and I was in pain, and then all of a sudden, I'm in a place I didn't recognise, surrounded by people that I didn't know, watching the world through the eyes of a child! How the hell did you think I was supposed to react?! Just calmly accept the fact that I'll never get the chance to see my husband and children ever again!?"_

He was about to reply just as harshly to her, but then...

He stopped.

He stopped and thought to himself.

And then, came to a realisation.

"Well... Now you can?"

She blinked through the mirror of Crocea Mors, and then looked to the side, _"...Yeah... I can, can't I?"_ she paused again, _"Not in the way I'd like, but..."_

"..."

_"..."_

"..."

_"..."_

"...What am I going to say?"

Summer looked at him though his sword, _"Huh?"_

"To Yang and Ruby," he told her, "What do I say to them? And their dad as well. Tai, you said his name was."

_"..."_

"I mean, they're not going to trust me, you know. At least, Yang won't."

Summer hummed, _"Yes, I-I saw. I must be honest, for as long as I knew her when she was a child, Yang was always headstrong, but I never imagined that she would become so..."_

"Hard-headed?"

"For lack of a better word, yes," Summer added on, _"I guessed that she might've become more protective of Ruby when I died, but... I don't know. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but... It certainly wasn't her being so violently... I don't know? Violent? Violently violent?"_

"..."

_"...I don't know. Just... Not that."_

"So, what? How do I talk to them? What do I say to them? I can't just go up to Yang and everyone else and say 'Hey guys, what's up? Oh, by the way, your dead mum's been living in my head for a decade'. Can't just say that."

_"Well, with more tact, you can."_

"Summer, this is me. You and I both know that... Well, that tact isn't my thing."

_"I wouldn't say that. You're not stuttering right now, are you?"_

"Only because I'm talking to someone that I've practically known all of my life."

Summer sighed, _"Point taken,"_ a pause, and then, _"I think that you just need to mind your wording. Cut straight to the point, and don't try to string them along. From what I've seen, Yang seems to be quite temperamental, concerning myself, and the fact that the Cult, if Ruby is right, have my body- My actual body... Then it might just screw with their ability to listen to us- Or to you, I guess."_

"That might work with Ruby and Tai, Summer, but I doubt that Yang will-"

 _"Believe you? Be willing to listen to you?"_ Summer nodded, _"I know. But, it would be best to just get it over with, anyways. The sooner you get it out there and say it, the better. Besides, I doubt that Yang will give you any real choice on the matter, if what we've seen so far is accurate."_

"Can't I just leave it for later?"

_"No: That'll just make it worse. Best case scenario, everyone will think that you're stringing them along and confront you about it. Worse case, Yang will-"_

"Beat the crap out of me?"

 _"Y-Yeah, that,"_ another pause, _"Look, if they ask you to prove it to them, then I can provide you with the information that you'll need. Just take your time, answer their questions with enough clarity for them to understand, don't be needlessly ambiguous, and just, you know..."_

"Don't die?"

_"Yeah, pretty much."_

Jaune looked to the side, and, "What about... What about the teachers? What about Headmaster Oz-"

_"DON'T!"_

He jumped back in surprise, almost dropping his sword in recoil as he recovered himself.

Summer saw this and winced, _"No, I just... No. Don't tell him."_

"But-"

 _"Jaune,"_ she looked at him with deep, saddened eyes, _"Please. Don't let him know."_

"...Are you sure?"

_"Positive."_

That answer was a little too quick.

"A-Alright then..." Jaune muttered out, both to himself and to Summer, not entirely sure as to how to respond to that request, before continuing on again, "But... I don't know. Yang's already made up her mind about me, I think. She won't trust me. Hell, I doubt that anyone trusts me at all, and for good reason."

"I trust you."

He jumped again, and so did Summer through the mirror of his sword as he looked to the side underneath his cloak, and saw-

"Hey there."

-Nana Shaula looking at him, her head tilted to the side and her blue eyes hiding a glow behind them against the dim artificial light as she leant against the door frame that he swore had been locked.

Hadn't he locked it? Gods, he was going barmy.

"I mean", she continued as she pushed herself against the doorframe, "You haven't betrayed my trust yet."

"...How long have you been standing there?" Jaune asked. The hum of Crocea Mors had stopped, and it no longer glowed.

"Long enough to know that you've got voices in your head," she pointed to her own noggin, "And that you're trying to find a way to talk about it by chatting with your sword," she laughed, "One of them, at least."

Jaune looked down at himself, and then at Nana, "Hey..." he whined, before going, "I really would've liked it if you hadn't-"

"Oh, don't sweat it, Jaune, I've got your back," she gestured her thumb outside of the classroom, "There's no one else here, and there was no one else here before, that could've heard. I made sure of it," she tapped her nose, "Your secret's safe with me."

"R-Really?"

"Your stutter's back?" she giggled, "That's cute."

He blushed and looked away, "S-Shut up."

"Nah, I don't think I will," Nana said as she closed the door behind her and walked up to him, "You know, credit where it's due, Jay- Can I call you Jay? Is it alright if I call you Jay?"

"Er, um... S-Sure."

She smiled, "Credit where it's due, Jay, back in the Emerald Forest? You were spectacular out there."

He blinked, "Wha- No, no no no. Don't be silly."

"Hey, I wasn't being silly. I was being honest. You've got quite a knack for leadership. A real savant if I must say so," she nudged him on the arm with her fist, "You've got the makings of a team leader, if I must say so."

"Ah, shush- Stop it," he looked away bashfully, "Y-You're just- You're just trying to massage my ego."

"Is it working?"

He gave her a raised eyebrow as his cheeks flushed a tint of red, but then looked to the side mournfully, "Yet... People died because of me."

"No they didn't."

"I gave them the orders to stay."

"No you didn't. You told Pyrrha that she was in charge, and you told them to be brave whilst we were taking the troop carrier. You didn't tell them to stay put. They should've had the common decency to run before the Cult had surrounded them. A fight against several Husk Grimm at the same time was never going to end well."

"It's all my-"

Nana flicked Jaune on the nose.

"-Ow! What was that for?"

"That was for the self-pitying BS," she told him, before poking him in the still armoured chest and going, "It's not your fault, Jaune, and if you try to make it your fault, then you're just being selfish."

"Selfish?"

She nodded, "Yeah, you are. If you try to soak up all of the blame like a sponge, then you're just trying to make it about you: If you actually believed that it was your fault, then you wouldn't be standing around moping about it: Instead, you would actually be helping people get better from it, and then getting better yourself, instead of wallowing in self-pity about it."

Jaune blinked, and then looked down at his feet, underneath the shadow of his cloak, and realised...

Yeah, she was right.

He had never really liked thinking about his own past, anyways. He had never really liked the whole self-pitying thing either. Thank the gods he had Nana here to help remind him of that.

"Yeah, you're right," Jaune told her as she smiled at his response, "I should- I should start helping people instead of moaning about it," he smiled at her in return, "Thanks, Nana."

She closed her eyes at the praise, "Yeah, praise me more. It's fuel for the ego."

"Really?"

"Hey, one of us needs to pick up the slack around here."

The 2 of them let out a shared, quiet laugh at their attempt at humour, before Nana tilted her head to the side and gestured her hands towards the door, "And speaking of helping other people, I believe that you have a chat to be getting to. Best not keep them waiting."

"Right, right," he waved her off as they both walked through the door and into the hallway. He spared a glance down at his sword- Summer's face was gone- Though he doubted that anyone could've seen it anyways- And then sheathed it, before bundling his cloak into his hands and going, "You know, with that pep talk that you gave me... You might be getting the team leader position yourself."

"One of them, surely," Nana laughed, folding her arms behind her head as they walked through the now empty hallways, "But then again, maybe not. You're the one leading me along, after all."

"Well, I just remembered where Yang, Ruby, and Tai are, so..." he paused, and then gave her a dry look, "Hah hah."

"Yeah, I'm hilarious," she barked out another laugh. It was so different from the cool professionalism that she had displayed in the Emerald Forest, "Still though, nothing's been decided. Ozpin was supposed to have held the final initiation ceremony at this moment."

He stopped and stared at her, "Wait, are we- Are we missing it?"

She shook her head, "No, no, it's been cancelled. Apparently Ozpin's got bigger things to be dealing with right now."

"Really?"

"Yeah," they continued walking, "Hate to tell you this, but that Cult lot have kinda set the world on fire. From what fresh rumours I've heard, Ozpin's reputation has officially gone down the toilet, and he and his lot are trying to do damage control. You know, stuff like that."

"A-Ah," was all that Jaune could say as a response, "I... I see..."

Soon, finally, they found themselves right back outside of the infirmary-

"Thanks for helping me back here. Sorry about forgetting where it was part way through."

"Ha, no problem Jay. Happy to help out a friend."

-And Nana opened up the door for him.

"Your meeting await, my liege," she chuckled.

He just chuckled, "Thanks, Nana," and stepped inside.

His mirth died instantly as he saw who he was going to have to talk to.

Ruby, Yang, and Tai were all together, Tai on a chair next to Yang's bed as the girl had an abundance of bandages wrapped around her chest, whilst Ruby sat on the bed next to her with bandages wrapped around her waist and one thigh, an blood transfusion set connected to her as the one that had been connected to him had been taken apart and emptied, placed into the corner for later use.

Stella was nowhere to be seen. Neither was anyone else in the infirmary.

Good. Not to sound rude, but he really would've liked it if no one else was around.

Behind him, Nana closed the door and left them in solitude. She could read the mood well, at least.

_You still with me, Summer?_

**_YEAH... I AM NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS..._ **

He internally sighed, Neither am I...

He had caught the Rose family's attention, now. Ruby was looking at him with a slightly parted mouth and wide silver eyes. She went to fidget in place, but winced and thought against it. Tai was looking at him as well, though his face was more calm, with a mixture of possible hope and suspicion to be found on him.

Yang was just staring at him with narrowed, baleful eyes, tinted slightly red.

…

Well, no time like the present, then.

He walked over to where Ruby was sitting- Yang made a motion, but winced and stopped herself- And then...

His cloak was like a security blanket for him. He had said this before. Or at least, he had thought it. It had been one of the greatest constants in his life, and he really did not wish to part with it...

But then again, like he said before, Ruby might need it more than he did.

And right now, she might need it more than ever.

"Here," he said as he held the white and gold fabric out to the girl in red and black.

Ruby just looked up at him with wide, unsure eyes.

"...I, er, I always had this for me when the times were rough," he hesitantly said as he continued to hold it out for her, "I figured... You might need it more than I do."

"..."

Ruby looked down at the white cloak, and then to him, and then back to the white cloak.

Greedily, yet with an equal amount of hesitance on her part, she took the cloak out of his hands, and held it close to her chest.

Sitting himself down on the bed opposite her, he fumbled his hands together, and looked up at them.

"I know, now at least, what happened to Summer."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are! The beginning of the aftermath, where I put the entirety of the battle of the Emerald Forest and its consequences into perspective!
> 
> Yeah, I've still got a lot to go over. Goddamn me for this...
> 
> In the meantime, I hope that you all enjoyed this incredibly short chapter. In the meantime, please follow, favourite, leave a review, stay safe, stay healthy, and I shall see you all next time!
> 
> Titanmaster117 out!


	15. Beacon part 13: When is the Truth a Lie?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A confession turns into a rejection...
> 
> And a rejection turns into a fracturing.

**Main theme:** _[Death Hymn by Lucas King](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmTN8wu2AM8)  
_ **Arc theme:** _[Rise from the Destiny 2 soundtrack](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=intmEEVphig)  
_ **Theme:** [_Reflection from the Destiny 2: Beyond Light soundtrack_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFm7Oz_NGn8)

* * *

Yang's eyes blinked rapidly, "What? You... You know what?"

"I know what happened to Summer."

She looked at Jaune for a long time, before her eyes narrowed, and she snarled out, "I thought you said that you knew nothing about that."

He nodded as he repositioned himself on his bed, wincing as his shoulder and leg ached once more, before continuing on and said, "Yeah, I did."

Her eyes flashed red, "So you were lying."

"I wasn't lying."

"What the- Stop bullshitting me!" Yang thrashed around in her bed, but growled from the pain in her chest as her aura continued to heal her fractured and cracked skin, "What the fuck does that mean?"

"I only learnt about it back in the Emerald Forest?"

She blinked again, "You mean earlier... Earlier today."

Jaune nodded. That confirmed what the day was for him, at least.

Yang narrowed her eyes as she repositioned herself on her bed, "So the Cult got to you?" it was more of an accusation than a question.

"No, it's..." he rubbed the back of his head, unsure of how to properly say what he was, well, what he was about to say.

_**YOU'VE GOT THIS.** _

_**SHE THINKS.** _

_**I THI- SHUT UP, SUNDARESH.** _

Jaune paused for a moment, taking in the mixed confidence in the voices in his head-

Were they really just in his head? Summer had said earlier that their connection was a lot more complicated than just that, so what was it really? He didn't know, but (Hopefully) There would be time to ponder on it later.

- _Thanks guys_ , he sent over to them, before looking down at the floor, and then back up to Yang, Ruby, and Tai, as he said, "The reason that I know what happened to Summer, is because, well-"

He tapped his head.

"-It's because she's living inside my head."

Ruby's eyes widened, as did Tai's, but neither of them said a word.

Yang, however, had a much different reaction, "What the fu- Bullshit!" she made a move to get up, to damn with the pain apparently, and pointed a finger towards him as her eyes glowed a fiery red, licks of heat flowing off of her hair, and threatening to burn the bandages, "How the fuck do you- Who the hell do you take me for!? Do you really expect me to believe that shit!?"

"No."

This took Yang aback, as she lowered her hand slightly.

Jaune rubbed the side of his head apologetically, "T-Truth be told, I'm... I'm still trying to wrap my head around this whole thing as well. I-I've had her in my head for a decade- 10 years- And I never... I always thought that they were just voices in my head. Annoying, uncontrollable noises."

_**RUDE.** _

"Voices in your... Like schizophrenia?" this time, it was Ruby who piped up as she hugged the white cloak in her hands, "You thought it was... Wait... 10 years?"

Jaune winced, though it wasn't because of the pain this time, "Yeah..."

Tai still didn't say anything.

"When did you- Oh Jaune," Yang began sardonically, "When did you come to this spectacular, frankly- Frankly insulting conclusion?" she didn't let him finish as she barked out a harsh laugh, and went, "Let me guess, it was when you- Oh, this is rich!- It was when you saw my mum's damned corpse!?"

 _I never saw it_ , he didn't say. Best not anger her even more. Not when she was so volatile, "N-No... No, it was- It was when Pyrrha and Ren and I first met that... Ruby Alter thing... When it possessed Nora..."

Tai blinked, and looked like he had bitten back... Something. Something that he was about to say. Maybe he hadn't been informed about Ruby Alter. Or maybe he had, but not about her ability to possess people. Or maybe it was something else entirely.

"When I first came face to face with that... Thing... I asked it if it was Summer... I was almost convinced that it was, but..." he tapped his head again, "But Summer- She said that it wasn't her. She said that Ruby Alter wasn't her, because, you know-" a gesture to his head once more, "-She's, um, in here. Oh, and, um, the- The semblance thing!"

"Her semblance? The one you used?"

"Y-Yeah... Look, I don't know the specifics, but from what Summer said, and apparently the other people in the afterlife as well," he mumbled out the last part, really not wanting to put much thought into it right now. That was just a whole other can of worms that he really didn't want to get into, "I, er, apparently have some... I don't know, some link to them, and can, I don't know, use just a fraction of their semblances, or something. And before you say anything, I know that this all sounds, well, this all sounds ridiculous, because when you put it on paper, it really is, but I don't know how else to explain it-"

"Tell us something that only she can know."

Jaune blinked at Yang's demand.

"I don't want you to tell us our birthdays, or our middle names, or something else that you can- Not something that you can pull up in the school's systems, or- Or whatever," Yang growled.

Ruby looked to her, "Yang-"

"What were her last words to us?"

The black and red-haired girl blinked rapidly, "Yang-"

"No one else knows what she said to us," Yang gestured to Ruby, "Hell, my little sister can't even remember it," Ruby looked at her, offended, and Tai looked like he was about to say something, but Yang cut them both off, "So c'mon: Tell us, because if you're lying, I'll fucking rip you in half."

She bared her teeth.

"And don't think I'm exaggerating."

Jaune blinked, took in a deep breath, and then closed his eyes.

Was this really the right thing to do? Had he said the right things? Hell, was he about to say the right things?

He didn't know.

Probably not, in all honesty.

It was a catch-22 scenario. Yang had already made up her mind about him- As a lying, cheating snake- And it showed. If he lied, she would kill him. If he told the truth... Probably the same outcome.

**_ALL THAT'S LEFT NOW IS TO TELL THE TRUTH._ **

_Easier said than done._

**_SO IS EVERYTHING ELSE._ **

_…You remember what you said to them?_

**_I WOULD NEVER FORGET._ **

He then opened his eyes, and spoke.

_**TO RUBY, I SAID 'GOODBYE MY LITTLE ROSEBUD. TRY NOT TO EAT ALL THE COOKIES WHILE I'M GONE'.** _

"To Ruby, she said 'Goodbye, my Little Rosebud. Try not to eat all the cookies while I'm gone'."

_**TO YANG, I SAID 'GOODBYE MY LITTLE DRAGON. PLEASE TRY NOT TO BURN THE HOUSE DOWN WHILE I'M GONE'.** _

"To Yang, she said 'Goodbye, my Little Dragon. Please try not to burn the house down while I'm gone'."

_**AND TO TAI, I SAID 'TAKE GOOD CARE OF THEM WHILE I'M GONE, TAI... AND I LOVE YOU'."** _

"And to Tai, she said... 'Take good care of them while I'm gone, Tai... And I love you'," he paused, and then, "That's what... That what she said to you."

The armrests of the chair that Tai was sitting on broke under his grip. His breathing was shaky, and his eyes were wide, but he was keeping some form of calm on him, before...

Before he just looked down at his lap, and clamped his hands together.

What was... What was with that reaction?

Yang was very much the same, yet different at the same time. Her head was tilted down, and her eyes were closed and shadowed by her hair. Everything about her was as still as a statue. So much so that it unnerved him even more than when she was just angry at him.

Ruby wasn't faring much better, as she looked rapidly between Yang and Tai, her head swivelling from side to side as she broke the uncomfortable silence with, "Was he... Was he lying?"

"..."

"..."

"...Guys, this- This isn't funny," her voice was a whisper, "Was he... Was he lying about what mum said?"

"..."

"..."

"Dad! Yang!"

"..."

"...No, Ruby," it was finally Tai who spoke up, not changing his position at all as he continued on, "No, he's not. That's- That's what your mother said. Word for word."

Ruby's breath stuttered, and she looked at Jaune with eyes so wide they looked like they were about to pop out of her head. Maybe they were about to. Her cheeks were wet and red, and her mouth was motioning speech, even though nothing of the sort was coming out.

Yang just remained silent.

Jaune winced. He knew that it would happen, but he hadn't wanted to cause any pain. It was an inevitability, of course, but still...

It hurt to see them like this.

"...10 years."

"Hm?"

"You said that she was in your head for 10 years," Ruby muttered to him, eyes wet like salt oceans as she hung from the side of her bed, fumbling with the cloak in hand as she then said, "I would've been 5 years old then, but... She left when I was 2 years old."

Jaune's eyes widened at that, "Really?" he quietly asked, though it was more himself than her. He never knew about that about Ruby's mother (Though to be fair, he didn't really know a lot about her). If that was true, then...

Then Summer Rose had been wondering across Remnant for 3 years before she died.

What the hell had she been doing during that period of time?

"...N-No, that can't be..." Ruby stuttered out to herself, "I mean, I can't remember what... But... That should be impossible..."

She looked over to her father.

"Right?..."

"..."

"...D... Dad?"

"...Maybe..." Tai began slowly, his hands shaking as he held them together, still looking down at his lap as he then said, "Maybe he's telling the truth..."

"...W... What?"

Ruby blinked, looked to Jaune, then to her dad, to Jaune, to her dad, to Jaune, to her dad, and finally back to Jaune.

Her eyes were darting from side to side, trying to look for... Something, he didn't know what. Her hands were sweaty and shaking, and her breath was growing thinner and thinner. She looked like she was on the verge of a panic attack.

"But... It can't... I..."

Oh dead god, she was about to have a panic attack.

"J... Jaune, how did she..."

She visibly swallowed a lump in her throat.

"How did she die?..."

…

…

…

…

_**OH, RUBY...** _

Jaune could understand the sadness in Summer's voice. No child should ever have to lose their parents, and in a way, no parent should ever have to see their child so... Broken by their loss.

But, well, he couldn't answer that question, because he didn't actually know what the answer was.

And he doubted that Summer would be revealing that information anytime soon.

_**…** _

The silence was telling enough.

"Ruby... I don't think... I mean, she hasn't-"

"Shut up."

Ruby and Jaune paused in place, and then looked to the bed near them. Tai did the same.

Yang was still looking downwards, but her entire body was shaking. Her hair was lit up and burning through her bandages. Her red eyes were practically blaring through her sealed shut eyelids. Her hands were gripped so tightly that they were turning red, her nails digging into her skin, so much so that they might draw blood if she wasn't careful.

"Shut up... Shut up... Shut up... Shut up..."

Ruby looked worryingly at her, "Um, Ya-"

"SHUT UP!"

Before anyone could say or even do anything, Yang was suddenly in front of Jaune-

{GRAB}

"ACK!"

-Picking him up by his neck with just one hand, and lifting him off of his feet as she glowered at the boy with smouldering eyes and blaring teeth.

"WHAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT?!" Yang screamed at him, "WHO THE FUCK GIVE YOU THE RIGHT TO WALK IN HERE, AND TRY TO- TRY TO MANIPULATE MY FAMILY LIKE THAT?! THROWING THE NAME OF MY MUM LIKE THAT?! LIKE SOME CHEAP TOY!? HOW FUCKING DARE YOU!"

"YANG!" Ruby called out to her, but-

"BACK OFF, RUBY!"

-Was rebuffed by Yang as behind them, Tai shot out of his seat to try and intervene.

"ANYTHING ELSE!?" Yang bellowed at the boy that she was choking the life out of, "ANY OTHER WAY YOU WANT TO TRY AND WORM- TRY TO WORM YOUR WAY INTO OUR LIVES, YOU FUCKING WEASELY SNAKE!?"

"Yang, that is enough!" Tai called out to her as he tried to pry Jaune out of Yang's grip, but the girl in question did it herself as she then-

{CRASH}

-Threw him into the wall near the door, cracking the frame and leaving a dent in its white paint.

"COME ON, I'M WAITING!" she screeched out to the boy in question as she marched up to him.

_**JAUNE! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!** _

_**WHAT THE HELL!? STAND UP! DEFEND YOURSELF, AT LEAST!** _

The voices in his head erupted in earnest once more, but Jaune couldn't find it in him to listen to them as he felt a hand grab him by the hair and force him up to look at a scathing pair of blood red eyes.

"Never come near me or my family ever again," Yang growled out to him through gritted teeth, "I will not allow you to worm your way in and poison the people I love with your rhetoric."

All Jaune could do was wince at the sharp pain. And even though he wasn't lying, all that he could do next was just nod solemnly, and whisper out, "Okay," to her.

Yang pulled him up to his feet by the hair, and the door behind him opened up as a panicking Nana looked in, confused as to what was going on. With a lazy gesture, Yang almost threw Jaune out of the infirmary, and slammed the door shut behind him.

As Nana kept Jaune up straight, fussing over him and the possibility of reopened wounds, all that he could do was sigh, and look up at the ceiling, before they began their trek to... They didn't know. Somewhere other than there.

(It occurred to Ruby a little bit later that not once did Jaune try to defend himself against Yang.

Not even once.)

* * *

As Yang closed the door behind her, all that she could growl out was, "Good riddance to bad fucking rubbish..."

"...Yang... With all due respect... What the hell was that?"

The blonde-haired woman paused in surprise. Ruby was the last person that she expected to swear.

Looking back to her and leaning her back against the wall, Yang replied with, "What that was, was me getting rid of an sneaky little weasel. No need for that shit getting in here and shitting on our mother's name like that."

"Yang, you choked him!" Ruby retorted with as she got out of her bed (Taking a moment to wobble in place from the pain in her waist and thigh), And dragged her blood transfusion set behind her as she walked up to her and slapped her hand against her older sister's shoulder, "You choked him and- And then you tossed him out of here like he was a ragdoll! You don't just- You can't just do that!"

Yang, still feeling sour from what she had been told by Arc, just responded with, "Yeah? So what?"

"What do you mean so- I repeat: You can't just do that!"

"Ruby, you're overreacting. That guy was a weasel. He was-"

"He saved us in the Emerald Forest!"

"He didn't do jack!" Yang growled out, pushing herself off of the wall as she looked down at her sister, "And then he comes in here, and uses Summer's name, and some- Some magic shit to try and worm his way into our lives!" she scoffed loudly, "Dead people inside of his head? Does he- How stupid does that idiot think we are?"

Behind them, their dad winced, but didn't say anything. Weird.

"But..." Ruby began, "Didn't he..."

"Didn't he what?" Yang raised an eyebrow at, putting her hands on her waist as she looked down at her little sister.

"Didn't he... Didn't he get mum's last words right?"

"..."

Silence was Yang's only response.

He had. He had said them word for word.

…

The thought of it made Yang's blood boil.

Had he been stalking them? Had he been observing them for years? And what about the Cult of Silver? They always called him 'Orion' and not Arc.

What was that white-haired woman's- Baobhan Sith's- Words to him?

_"And you... Orion... Would you not like to seek redemption? Would you not like to make up for that which you have lost? Would you not like to make up for that which you have destroyed? Would you, Jaune Arc, not like to redeem the name Orion, and wear it once more?"_

He knew something else. Something about the Cult and that- That- That fake-Ruby thing. He had to.

Just as he knew about what Summer's last words to them were.

How much else did he know? How much else was he keeping from them? How much else was he going to lie about and dangle in front of him like bait for the innocent little guppies around him?

Did he know about where Raven was?

Did he know about where she could find the woman?

Surely he had to. The creep knew what Summer's last words were, after all. Surely he knew about where that bitch of a woman was hiding away as well.

He was a snake. A lying, cheating, deceiving snake. There was no other way around it.

But a snake could be useful at least once in a lifetime.

"Then he's a stalker," Yang gritted out to Ruby, stating it as if it were gospel, "He's a liar and a stalker," she looked towards the door, "And he knows more things. He knows more than he was letting on."

"If that's the case, Yang, then you shouldn't have thrown him out!" Ruby shot back to her in an exasperated tone of voice.

Yang just barked out a laugh, "You know what, Ruby? You're right! I shouldn't have let that little weasel go. I think I'm going to go drag him back here. See what I can get out of him," another laugh, "I mean, even in a book of lies, you'll sometimes find the truth, right?"

"What if he isn't lying?"

The 2 girls jumped, and then looked behind themselves to see-

""Dad?""

-Staring down at his hands, as still as a statue, and with saddened eyes of regret and sorrow. It looked like he was drowning in his own misery.

Yang winced at the sight. It was like...

It was like when Summer left all over again.

Back then, Dad had just completely shut down.

And it was happening all over again.

"What if he really could hear Summer?" he asked quietly, to no one but himself, it would seem. If Zwei was here, then he'd been rubbing himself against his owner's leg in order to cheer him up, or get him to smile, or something along those lines. Zwei, being an emotional support dog, was really good at what he did.

Yang let out another laugh, only this time there was no humour at all to be found, "Bullshit, Dad. That's utter bullshit. So he got a few word right? Big deal. That doesn't mean anything."

At least, that's what she was telling herself.

"But... He could..." Ruby began once more, "He could use her sem-"

"Your semblance, Ruby. Your semblance, not Mum," Yang hurryingly added on, "He's just- He's just a copycat. A shit copycat at that, so get over it. He's nothing but a liar and a snake. Accept it."

Yang looked back towards the door, "You know what? I'm going to drag him back here. Him and his little friend. Maybe they both know something else about Summer, or the Cult, that fake-you thing, or even Raven."

Ruby blinked, "Raven?"

"Ohohohoh, yeah," Yang nodded slowly, "If that runt could find out that kind of shit about Summer, then surely he'll know something about Raven as well, and I plan to get it out of him, even if I have to... Play Uncle, of a sort."

"Yang! You can't just- Please! What if he's telling the-"

"Ruby, that's bullshit and you know it!" Yang railed back against Ruby, glaring down at her little sister as she yelled back with, "For god's sake, Summer's dead! We saw her corpse! Living in someone's head? That's just bullshit and everyone knows it! Even you!"

She flexed her hands into fists, and reached for the door behind her.

"I know it's tough, sis. Hell, I'm hating this as much as you, but... But Summer's dead."

"She could-"

"She's dead, Ruby. We saw her body. The Cult got to her. End of story," she winced at Ruby's despondent look. She really didn't want to cause her anymore pain than she already had, but right now, such things were necessary. Sometimes you had to hurt the things you love in order to save them, "Please, Ruby, just let it go. And let me go back and get Arc. Maybe then we can get some answers about that flying feather-brained woman, and-"

And then, suddenly, something new- Something utterly alien to her, so unnatural and diabolically untrue to everything that she knew- Cut through the air.

It was Ruby.

"Hahahahahahahahah…"

It was Ruby, letting out the quietist, most humourless chuckle that she had ever witnessed in her life.

"...Ruby?"

The chuckle was reduced to a faint murmur on her lips, and she wiped her eyes with her arm as, with a smile so broken that you could make out each and every individual crack in them, shining silver light through the channels and streams and shining dimly into the world around them. Her eyes flickered red for just a moment, and her arms silver.

And then, Ruby just... Looked at her. Stared. Stared right into her soul and back again. Piercing through her like an arrow through skin and tissue. Drawing blood from the sharpness of her glare alone.

It was the angriest that she had ever seen Ruby, and it was currently being hidden underneath a wavy smile.

"You know- You just, you know what? I had thought that, for just a moment- For just a singular moment, you cared. You cared about something other than that... Woman, that you're so obsessed with..."

She shook her head softly.

"But no... No no no… I think that we're similar like that, at least. I'm just oh so obsessed with my mum- With Summer, aren't I? And you... You're obsessed with Raven."

There was a bite to her words that Yang had never heard before. Her tongue was a knife, with each word stabbing into her very soul and being.

"R-Ruby... I'm sor-"

"Why aren't I allowed to hope?"

Her smile was gone now. Her eyes were wetting once more.

"Why is it, that for so many years, you've been allowed to go chase after your mum, but the second that I'm even given a shred of hope that my mum is still alive, I'm-" another mirthless bark, "How come that every time I find some shred of hope that my mum is still alive, I'm automatically the idiot! Meanwhile you're allowed to go out to look for a woman that intentionally- For all intents and purposes- Walked out on us with very obvious plans to never return! Hell, you're allowed to go and blow up an entire bar, just to find her, while I'm given nothing!"

This... This took Yang aback.

This anger... This hidden anger... Had Ruby always felt like this?

Had she just been bottling it up this whole time?

Did she really resent Yang trying to find her own mum, whilst she never got the chance to?

"Ruby-"

"Oh, no, I get it- It's because you always knew that she was dead, didn't you?"

What?

What?!

Why on Remnant would she- Why would she ever think that?!

"Ruby, why would you-"

"Actually, no, you could never have known, could you? Unless you tried to look for her! But you-" Ruby let out a frustrated bark of anger, "You never tried to look for her! You never tried to look for my mum! Our mum! Our actual mum! The one who raised us! You never tried to look for her!"

Ruby then jabbed her so hard in the bandaged chest that it left Yang groaning from the blunt pain.

"It was always about Raven! It still is always about Raven! It's always 'Raven this, Raven that, Raven here there and everywhere'!"

"Ru-"

"Why do you care so much about Raven!? Didn't she walk out on us!? Didn't she make it clear that she never wanted to return!?"

Yes, she did.

Yang had been told countless times by Uncle Qrow and Dad that Raven had left when she was born, and had made it clear that she didn't want to ever return to Patch, or to them, for whatever reasons that she had.

Whatever the hell those were, anyways.

"Why did you never look for mum!? Why did you always look for Raven?! Why do you care more about the deadbeat who walked out on us instead of the woman who raised us!?"

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

Yang didn't know.

She didn't know why she cared about Raven more than she did Summer?

Was it because of some internal biological instinct? That Raven was her birth mother and that deserved her more credit as a mother than it did to the actual woman who raised her?

Was it because, on some instinctual level, she knew that Summer was dead, and Raven was not, so there was therefore no point in her trying to make an effort in trying to find her?

Or was it because she just wanted a family that wasn't broken, and finding Raven was just the easiest option?

…

…

…

…

She didn't want to think too much on it.

"But, no: I suppose that I'm just the idiot, aren't I?" Ruby humourlessly joked, "After all, I'm just dumb old Ruby Rose! I wouldn't know any better! Of course not! After all, surely I'm not the one who wishes to see their mother again under any circumstance! I'm not the one who just wants to have a family again, with my actual mother! The one who raised the both of us, even if my sister constantly goes off to try and find the deadbeat who walked out on us, without even trying to give me the faintest trace of hope that my own mum might still be-"

She stopped, hissed, and almost buckled under the throbbing pain in her stomach and thigh as she gripped onto her blood transfusion set for support.

"...I can't even look at you right now. Get out of my sight."

Yang just... Yang just stopped and stared. That was all that she could do. That was all that she could possibly do.

"Ru-Ruby-"

Ruby's eyes turned red.

"GO!"

That was the first time that Ruby had ever lashed out in anger against her.

…

…

…

…

It hurt.

It hurt so much that Yang might just die from it.

And, at that moment...

She really wished she had.

Her breath was shaking. Her hands were trembling. Her own eyes flashed between red and lilac.

Had Ruby's eyes... Did they just turn red?

Red from anger?

Like...

Like her own semblance?

…

…

…

…

Yang didn't like that colour on her anymore.

With a shaking grimace that looked like it was on the edge of becoming a sorrowful frown, and without another word being said, Yang just opened the door behind her, and slunk out of the infirmary.

As she closed the door behind her, her anger, her sorrow, and every other emotion within her finally gave out, and she collapsed against the wall, sobbing to herself.

What had she done?

What had she done?

What had she done?

What had she done?

What had she done?

What had she done?

What had she done?

What had she done?

She looked for something to blame. Someone to take her anger out on.

And knew where to look.

 _That bastard..._ Yang thought to herself, _That bastard... That bastard... That bastard... I'm a bastard._

And so, in the moment, she blamed it all.

She blamed Arc.

She blamed Raven.

She blamed Summer.

She blamed the Cult.

She blamed Ruby.

She blamed the whole world...

And then herself.

* * *

Inside the infirmary, Ruby just rested her head against the door, banging it softly against the wood and metal as she tried to refocus her mind on... Just about anything that could take the pain away.

Not the physical pain, but the mental pain.

The pains that couldn't go away with a kiss and an bandaid.

And sure enough...

Nothing worked.

Behind her, her dad had not said a single word, not even during their argument.

Not. One. Word.

…

He had shut down.

…

…

…

…

"Hey... Dad?"

No answer. She spared a glance back. He was still breathing. He was still alive. She looked back to the door.

"Do you remember... When we were younger... When Yang carried me all the way towards that barn in the middle of the night, because she thought Raven might be there?"

A rustling and fidgeting of a chair behind her. That got his attention, at least.

"And do you... Do you remember how we were trapped there, and- And we were surrounded by Beowolves, and we would've-"

"But you didn't," Dad could still talk, it would seem. At least he was trying to be reassuring, "You didn't die. Neither did your sister."

"Only because Uncle Qrow saved us. Direct action, that's what that was."

Ruby pressed her head against the doorframe. Her face was a grimace.

She thought back to the Emerald Forest, and how she had her sights narrowed down on one of the Cultists fighting against her as they were being healed. She thought back to how she couldn't pull the trigger.

She thought back to her own weakness...

And she thought back to Uncle Qrows lessons.

Never again...

"Maybe I should be more like that, now... Maybe I'm just soft."

Never again...

"..."

"Maybe I'm just weak."

Never again.

"..."

"...So go on then."

"..."

She turned her head towards Tai at the end of the room, "Direct action, Dad. Tell me how I have to go make up with Yang. Tell me how I have to be the best sister ever for her. Tell me how I'm going to be amazing, and that everything's going to be okay, and the world totally isn't ending around me, and I didn't just completely ruin my relationship with my sister and the closest thing to an actual mother in my life, and I have to make sure that it doesn't happen, just like Mum would."

"..."

"...Direct action, Dad."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...At least say something... Anything..."

"..."

Tai got out of his seat, picking himself out of his chair as he shook in place, his face turning red, his eyes beginning to wet. He looked... He looked so unsure of himself.

"I... I can't..." he began, before just giving up and going, "I need to... I... I need to go..."

"..."

"...I'm sorry..."

Ruby didn't feel the same way, and was disgusted at herself by it.

"...Yeah," she just nodded, "Yeah, that might... Okay then... Fine," she hid the disappointment in her voice as she moved out of the way of the door, and gestured for him to walk through, "Get yourself back to the office, or back home, and just... I don't know, hang out Maelstrom, or Kaia, or just cuddle with Zwei, or... Or go visit... Or something... Something else..."

"T-Thanks, sweetie, but I-" he paused, "I think I just... Need to be alone for a while..."

"...Okay..."

Every step that Tai took to the door looked like a mission. Every movement seemed like the most strenuous task in the world. It looked like he was one step away from just breaking down right there and then. She was surprised that he didn't do just that right there and then.

As he pulled on the door, a voice from behind him said, "This was always going to happen, wasn't it?"

He looked back to her as she found her seat in her bed once again, the white cloak now in her free hand once more as the other gripped tightly on the blood transfusion set. Her eyes were dull, wet, and looking out of the dimly lit window. The sun was red and resting and cresting down below the hills in the distance, shining its hadean light into the room.

"...What?" she had never heard her father sound so weak. She didn't like it.

"I mean, with..." she paused, and looked down at herself, holding the white cloak close to her, "With such... Such unrestrained evil... Such pure living malice as the Grimm... And such... Such unadulterated amorality as Baobhan and the Cult of Silver... This was always bound to happen, wasn't it?"

"..."

"...Dad..."

"..."

He just left the room without another word, leaving Ruby all on her own.

She would say again, but... She had never actually been like this before.

She had always had someone there for her.

Wherever it be Yang, or Dad, or Uncle Qrow, or Zwei, or even the people at Dad's company, she had always had someone to make sure she wasn't lonely.

She had never had that problem.

And yet, now...

For the first time in her life...

She was well and truly alone.

No Yang.

No Zwei.

No Uncle Qrow.

No Dad.

…

No Mum...

And, in agonizing sorrow, she cried. She cried and cried and cried and cried.

And then, in her bed, she drifted off into a fitful sleep.

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

"Sleep tight, Ruby."

Baobhan Sith smiled.

"We have so much planned for you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I miss the days when I got really long reviews... And more reviews.
> 
> Anyways, here is the penultimate chapter to the Beacon arc! Next chapter is going to be the last chapter of this entire arc, and then I can finally put it to rest!
> 
> I'm sorry that this chapter was so short, just like the last one when compared to all of my other chapters. It was originally meant to be longer with a bit about Weiss and Blake, but I decided to leave that bit till the next chapter, as I felt that ending it where it is now is much more impactful.
> 
> Big shout-out to NightshadeDandelion over on Ao3 for pointing out what I could do for the reactions to Jaune's confession. He was actually the person who convinced me to make this entire bit, so go thank him over on Ao3 for all that he's done for us!
> 
> Mostly me, though.
> 
> Anyways, with all of that said and done, leave a review, follow, favourite, and I shall see you all next time!
> 
> Titanmaster117 out!


	16. Beacon part 14: The Beginning of the End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is the beginning of the end for the Kingdoms of Remnant.
> 
> Heroes will rise...
> 
> Others will fall...
> 
> And a new enemy will begin their march out of the darkness, and into the light.

**Main theme:** _[Death Hymn by Lucas King](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmTN8wu2AM8)  
_ **Arc theme:** _[Rise from the Destiny 2 soundtrack](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=intmEEVphig)_  
 **Theme:** [_Deep Stone Lullaby from the Destiny 2: Beyond Light soundtrack_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBIJFTPPp-8)

* * *

_"It's aura transference technology."_

Ozpin looked up from his desk and the dozens upon dozens of reports and papers and whatnot that littered his desk like bad rubbish, and gave the glowing blue holographic projection of his long time friend and ally, General James Ironwood, a curious glance, "What do you mean?"

 _"The specs on the Cult's technology that you sent back? The devices that supposedly allowed them to mass teleport out of the Emerald Forest? I had Doctor Pietro inspect it, and he confirmed that, in essence, it's aura transference technology. The same kind of technology that we're using to keep Amber alive for the next Fall Maiden to take her place,"_ Ironwood replied as he had his arms folded behind his back, his posture as formal as ever, but Ozpin could tell that he was barely keeping his professionalism together.

Everything that had happened today was just... Was just too much.

To Ozpin's side, Glynda Goodwitch, his most trusted ally and right hand woman, looked at him inquisitively, and went, "How is that possible? Did we not already do everything in our power to keep that technology hidden from the public?"

 _"Clearly not, Miss Goodwitch, otherwise this technology would not exist,"_ Ironwood retorted with. The stress was getting to him, otherwise he would not be so sarcastic with them. Something had happened in Atlas. Something more than just a security breach, _"He's only done a preliminary sweep as of now, but Pietro has explained to me that whatever this cult are using for their mass teleports, it's piggybacking off of the already existing technology. According to him, each device is a remote signal that can be linked to a specific person's aura. Once that aura is transferred into the device, it allows that person to activate their semblance and spread it out across every device linked to it. And since the Cult's leader, according to Miss Rose, has a teleportation semblance-"_

"It would allow her to teleport everyone in the Emerald Forest to anywhere at will," Glynda finished for him, cursing to herself as she then said, "If that's true, then that woman could teleport an entire army onto Beacon's grounds at will, and we would not be able to do a thing about it."

 _"Fully aware,"_ Ironwood sighed out, _"It's bad."_

Glynda glared at him with such power that she might've killed Salem herself with it, "Bad, James? It's not bad, it's apocalyptic! That woman can jump to anywhere in the world, and has an army at her call! And if we're right, then she not only has agents in Atlas, but in every single system of government in every single kingdom! We are not talking about a meagre gathering of bandits, we are talking about an entire empire in hiding!"

 _"I get it, Glynda!"_ Ironwood shot back with impatiently, before letting out a deep breath, and recomposing himself to the best that he could, _"I apologise for the outburst,"_ he told them, _"And I already have my Ace-Ops, as well as my most trusted allies in Atlas, performing sweeps and checks on every rung of Atlas' society and military, including the CCT network. We'll do our best to weed out the Cult's agents on our end, but there are already reports of rising Grimm attacks on our frontier settlements, as well as movement from what we must assume to be Cult-friendly agents and groups out there as well. And with the rise in Grimm breaches through Mantle's walls and into the city, I'm afraid that I already have my hands full, on top of everything else."_

Ozpin caught onto that last part, "'Everything else', James?"

The general let out a sigh, _"Ozpin... It wasn't just Beacon that was attacked. I only learnt about it when I was too late to do anything, but..."_ he let out a shaky breath, _"Atlas' initiation was attacked too. As was Shade's and Haven's as well. I believe only Beacon Academy was the only one who could repel them before they did anymore damage."_

Ozpin's eyes widened, and Glynda put her hand to her mouth. It was Ozpin who then replied with, "Why wasn't I informed about this sooner?"

Ironwood looked at him with a pitying glance, _"Ozpin... Even I know that the councils refuse to trust you, now. Not after that what was said on the radio. They must've hidden it from you because of what happened. And besides, it's not like they don't have their own issues to deal with, anyways."_

Ozpin couldn't help but wince at that. That was... That was unfortunately true.

Everything was falling apart.

Ever since the Cult's transmission earlier in the day, including his recorded... Confession, as well as the dozens of documents and files and videos that they had released as well, things had begun to break apart within all of the kingdoms. Riots were beginning to break out across every major city, from Argus to Wind Path, and mass protests and demonstrations against every one of the kingdom councils were taking place everywhere on Remnant. There were reportedly mass pull-outs from the SDC as their stocks had begun to completely collapse, leaving the SDC possibly sinking into bankruptcy as the global dust trade began to collapse in on itself, and from what he had seen on the CCTnet, there were entire families of people that were planning on just hording as much dust as they could and hunkering down to weather out the storm. Across Remnant, there were hordes of people that were heading into their shops and panic buying as much as they could, leading to global shortages of, well, just about everything as the kingdoms began to fracture and break apart.

The councils would need to start rationing as much as they could if they weren't before. However, that would be hard considering that, thanks to the revelations of the corruption within Mistrals council, no one trusted said governmental bodies anymore. And since no one trusted the councils, no one trusted their enforcers, ergo the police forces, which then let to more rioting, and thereby an increase in crime, not helped at all by groups like the White Fang and the Human Liberation Front using the information leaked out by the Cult for their propaganda campaigns, with both sides pulling in new recruits and committing newer, even more daring attacks against their targets as a rising number of White Fang sympathisers, both Faunus and human, began to helped the Fang commit even more terrorist attacks in Mantle, the SDC, and even Atlas itself.

And that wasn't even going into the actions of the settlements out in the Frontier. Thanks to the feudal nature of the settlements out in the wildlands, many of them began to battle and fight against each other, going even more tribal than ever before as they drew each other's blood and scoured the world around them for their resources, which were sometimes just destroyed in the fighting, and left out for bandits and raiders to steal away into the night as the fighting only continued to escalate further and further and further...

Thereby drawing in the Grimm.

All across the world, Grimm attacks were beginning to grow in size and strength, threatening to overrun entire settlements as they grew fat from the negativity flowing out across the entire world. Entire settlements were swarmed and overtaken by the monsters of darkness as the kingdoms continued to fall apart at the seems. People were slaughtered wholesale by the Grimm as they continued to fight amongst themselves, warring and sparring for this and that in an increasingly violent world.

But then...

They were saved.

By entirely the wrong people.

Entire groups of people, either Cultists themselves or people allied to them, began to intervene in these attacks and defend the settlements from these vast Grimm armies. Whole battles took place out in the Frontier between the Grimm and the Cult of Silver and their allies.

And each and every time, the Cult would drive them back.

Ozpin was seeing the recordings being sent out by the Cult after the attacks, as part of their giant propaganda campaign. None of the Grimm attacks were staged. They were all natural consequences of the swelling amounts of negativity spreading across the world. And each and every time, the Cult would drive them back. Hell, the Cult even sustained casualties themselves, ranging from the minimal to almost all of their forces, making their stands seem all the more genuine.

Was the Cult so fanatically devoted to their cause that they would willingly sacrifice their own lives in the droves, just to create an entirely false image?

Apparently so.

And it was working.

Even if they knew about what the Cult of Silver did out in the Emerald Forest, many of the settlements out in the Frontier were beginning to show support for the Cult. There were even entire settlements out in the wildlands that publicly pledged their support for the Cult of Silver, turning themselves into monasteries and beacon towns for the group to organise and base themselves. Ozpin was already assembling teams of Huntsmen to assault and raid these settlements for any information that they might have on the Cult. However, those teams were most likely going to meet stiff resistance just getting there, thanks to the swift movements of the Grimm out in the wildlands, and the swifter militarisation of the settlements against them as well.

And even then, finding the support and manpower to actually make those teams was becoming increasingly difficult on top of that.

The Huntsman system, as fragile as it was, was beginning to splinter apart as well. Entire teams were turning tribal and going out on their own instead of listening to the headmasters or the councils, choosing to fight for themselves instead of the people of Remnant. In fact, it was these teams, as well as entire scores of people from Atlas, that were being poached and stolen away by Providence, the massive private military megacorporation that were now recruiting even the police forces of the kingdoms themselves to work for them. Already, Ozpin had received reports and letters of resignation from dozens of Huntsman teams, with almost all of them signing up for Providence, whilst Ozpin also received dozens of letters from parents and families, demanding that their children be removed from his care, or that they were just pulling their children out of Beacon, for their safety.

All of this could've been avoided if Ozpin had the tools needed to make it happen, but unfortunately, his entire reputation had been sunk into the ground.

The council was angry at him, the people were angry at him, even a lot of his own Huntsmen were angry at him, with so many of them demanding his resignation from office. Unfortunately for the council, they had a million other problems to deal with at the moment, and at the moment, they didn't have the time to look over these demands, or even freeze Ozpin's credentials and put him on ice, thanks to all of the rioting and the Grimm attacks and the dozens of investigations into their own political lives, so for now, Ozpin was safe.

Or as safe as he could be, considering that there were now dozens of investigations on him as well. As of now, he was just headmaster in name only. He no longer held any power outside of those whom trusted him. Luckily, he himself had completely designed the councils and the Huntsman system in one of his previous incarnations, and had created dozens of backdoors and loopholes that only he knew about, so that he could use to pull himself out of trouble if the time came to it.

But unfortunately, he couldn't do that right now. He was effectively on trial in the eyes of the public, thanks to his leaked confirmation of Salem and his secret war, and if he started to exploit loopholes and legal backdoors, that would make him look untrustworthy in the eyes of the public. He needed to play this by the book, otherwise he would never be able to gain their trust again.

The Cult had accomplished in 5 hours, what Salem had been trying to accomplish for 5000 years.

Everything that he had ever built was falling to pieces. The kingdoms were coming apart, everyone was even more divided than before, and there was no doubt that Salem wouldn't use this all to her advantage. Her, the Cult, or some other player on the board.

Everything was falling apart and he didn't know how to solve it.

"Thank you, James, for this news. This will be..." it took Ozpin longer than he would've liked to find his words, "Useful, to us," he finally finished with, "But in the meantime, we must be ready for any moves that Salem and her allies might make against us. There is no doubt that she is already attempting to destroy everything else that we have worked to build. Remain ever vigilant."

That was his way of saying that this conversation was over.

Ironwood looked like he was about to say something else, but Ozpin just cut him off with, "That'll be all, James... Good night, to you."

There was a long pause- Too long for Ozpin to like- But Ironwood then gave a solemn nod, and said, _"And to you too, Ozpin, Miss Goodwitch,"_ and with a flicker, he was gone.

Ozpin got out of his feet and walked to the edge of his office, staring out long and hard at the city of Vale through his windows, against the chiming of the clocks and gears around him. In the distance, the city of Vale was lit in white and yellow and orange, but not all of it was street lamps.

Just another symbol of his failures.

He had made more mistakes than any man or woman alive...

This was one of them.

…

…

…

…

He had to look to the future.

He had to fix all of this. He had to repair his reputation. He had to reseal the gaps and repair the bonds of the kingdoms. He had to stop Salem, and he had to stop the Cult.

He had to fix everything. He would fix everything, and damn him if he didn't- If he couldn't.

He had to fix it all, and win this game, before all of his pieces were taken from him.

A girl who survived a possession.

A champion whom could summon a familiar.

A girl whom just unlocked a very special pair of eyes.

And then...

Jaune Arc.

Formerly 'Orion', apparently.

The boy whom wore a cloak like Summer.

And also the boy whom used Summer's semblance.

A strange conundrum indeed.

Behind him, Glynda walked up to where he was standing, and joined him in watching the world around them fall apart, right by his side as they stared out into the darkening, unforgiving world.

And then, in a tone of voice that surprised even him, Glynda asked, "Why is everything changing so much?"

Everything ran slower, and then froze. It was as if the world was put on pause, stilled for a cruel pair of gods to point and laugh and mock.

Ozpin's hands gripped around nothing. His cane was gone.

And then, his hand pressed against the glass.

"...I don't know."

It was the only reply that he could give.

* * *

"What do you mean, you don't know?"

Jaune gave Nana a sincere look as they walked out of the hallways of Beacon, and out into the open. The world around them was dark, and lit by lamps and streetlights as they walked through the cold air of the dimming light, lit up in the distance by shades of artificial yellow and orange. Around them, the nightlights of Beacon began to close off as the various residents of Beacon's dorms closed their curtains and locked themselves in their rooms, too scared or too untrusting to come out into the world again. Bullheads continued to fly through the night time sky and ferry between the academy and the city below, cutting through the cloudy air like knives against the light of the shattered moon and the few stars visible through the holes in the clouds. The air around them was cold and wet. Had it been raining recently? That would explain the puddles on the floor.

He couldn't help but shrug at her, "I mean, I don't know. You're asking me how we can stop the Cult, and I don't-" he shrugged again, and threw his arms up into the air, "I don't know! I mean, I'm just, I wish that I could take them on- Hell, I wish I could take them on the Cult on my, well, on my own, but I just-"

As they looked over the cliff face at the edge of Beacon Academy, he just pointed down to the city below, with such a despondent look on his face.

"Look at this. Look at this all and tell me how the hell we're supposed to fix all of this."

Vale was alight with violence.

In the distance, mass riots and protests were tearing apart and dividing the city below. Great plumes of fire and smoke were rising up from the city's walls and streets as the kingdom continued to fold in on itself, becoming destitute and crippled by division. Bullheads were circling overhead like vultures and carrion birds, filled with people that either wanted to help, or just wanted to pick the bones for what was left as the world around them continued to fall apart at the seams.

Everything was coming apart and falling into darkness, and he didn't know what to do about it.

**_GODS... THIS CAN'T HAVE JUST BEEN ACCOMPLISHED BY THE CULT'S BROADCAST ALONE... THE CULT MUST'VE HAD- MUST STILL HAVE- PEOPLE IN ALL FACETS OF LIFE, SPREADING AND WIDENING THE DIVISIONS FOR YEARS, BEFORE-_ **

**_THEY GAVE IT THE FINAL PUSH... THE CULT MUST'VE BEEN PLANNING THIS FOR YEARS._ **

**_THIS IS THE CYCLE OF CIVILISATION. EVERY SOCIETY WILL RISE AND FALL, ACCORDING TO THE RULES OF CHANGE. THESE KINGDOMS THAT STAND NOW HAVE STOOD FOR AROUND A THOUSAND YEARS, AND IT HAS BEEN THE MOST FRAGILE SOCIETY ON REMNANT THAT I HAVE EVER SEEN._ **

_Really?_

**_YES, REALLY. STUDY THE ENTIRETY OF THESE KINGDOMS, AND COMPARE IT TO WHAT THE CULT THEMSELVES HAVE SAID. WHILE THEY MIGHT BE FLAWED, YOU CAN'T DENY THAT THEY AREN'T WRONG WITH A LOT OF THE POINTS THAT THEY HAVE MADE. THE KINGDOMS ARE A COLLECTIVE SOCIETY CONSTANTLY ON THE BRINK OF CIVIL WAR, AND THEIR PEOPLE HAVE BEEN DISENFRANCHISED FOR YEARS BY CULTURAL AND SOCIETAL DIVISIONS AND FRACTURES. THE ONLY THING THAT SURPRISES ME IS HOW LONG IT TOOK FOR THOSE DIVISIONS TO BOIL OVER._ **

**_WE CAN'T THINK LIKE THAT. I WILL ADMIT THAT THE WAY THAT THE CURRENT POWERBASES OF REMNANT ARE INCREDIBLY FLAWED AND IN NEED OF RENOVATION, YES, BUT THE KEY WORD IS REFORMATION, NOT REVOLUTION, AND CERTAINLY NOT A VIOLENT REVOLUTION. WE CAN'T JUST TEAR DOWN THE SYSTEM WHEN ALL THAT WE NEED TO DO IS HEAL IT. WE HAVE TO BE THE TREATMENT THAT CURES THE SICKNESS, NOT THE VIRUS THAT KILLS IT._ **

_…Yeah... I can work with that last one._

"Are you having a conversation with the guys in your head, or something?"

Jaune blinked, and then looked to Nana next to him. Her face was shaded, yet also lit up by the streetlamps of Beacon nearby.

"You spaced out on me," she added onto her previous sentence with a tilt to the side.

Jaune winced, "Did I?" she gave a nod, "Sorry," he responded with, before looking to the other side of himself, and going, "And yeah, I... I guess that you can say that."

She blinked in turn, "What did they say?"

Jaune looked at her, curious as to why she wanted to know, but pushed it to the wayside as he paused, trying to find his words, and then said, "They... They said... They said that the Cult... Well, they aren't wrong in a lot of the points that they made, but... But what they're doing is wrong. The right thing to do is reform the system, not destroy it," another pause, and he looked at her, "We have to cure the sickness, not kill the patient."

"..."

"Yeah, that was a terrible analogy, I know."

_**HEY...** _

"..."

"...Nana?"

Nana looked away for a few seconds as her lips pursed for a word, "I mean, I... I get the sentiment, Jay, I really do... But..."

She looked at him, and gave him a sad, sincerely mournful look.

"Jay... Jaune… Sometimes it's not the sickness that kills you... It's the treatment."

"...What do you-"

{BOOM}

Jaune and Nana jumped in place, and looked behind themselves. Not too far away, a giant plume of ice shot up from the ground and sliced the air in twain as sheets of frosty air flowed from its very being.

Nana pulled out her twin pistols from their holsters, and pointed them towards the evidently escalating battle in the distance, "What the fuck!? Are we under attack?!"

"Goddammit," Jaune got out as he pulled his sword from his scarab and held in both hands, "I am really not in the mood for this-"

"Get away from me, Fang!"

"You stay away from me, Schnee!"

The 2 of them blinked, and then looked at each other as the voices echoed out across the courtyard.

"Isn't that..." Nana began, "Isn't that Weiss and Blake?"

"...Oh, for gods... Let get over there."

The 2 of them ran to the freshly made battleground, and found that they weren't the first ones to have gathered there. A crowd of former initiates- Fresh from the Emerald Forest- Were crowding around the fight as Blake and Weiss continued to duel it out against each other, trailing blows and punches and jabs and swipes and kicks and sword slashes with each other, each one drawing blood and soiling their already battered clothing. Plumes of dust shot out from Weiss' fencing sword as Blake continued to create what looked like statuesque clones of herself that took the blows for her, creating shattering explosions that clouded the area in torrents of smoke and dust.

Around them, Jaune witnessed a few of the former initiates running off or falling to their knees with stuttered breathes and shaking hands. Their fight was triggering their fresh trauma.

This had to stop.

"Barf Boy," he jumped in place as he looked to the side, to see Ryuzu suddenly standing right next to him, not even looking at him as she then said, "Ryuzu will take Miss Schnee, you restrain Neko Emo," it wasn't a question as much as it was a command.

"Neko what?"

"Just do it, Barf Boy."

"R-Right."

The 2 of them then moved, and began to barge through the crowds that had gathered around the 2 fighting women-

"Hey... 'Scuse me... Pardon me... Coming through- Ow! Watch it!"

-Passing by the likes of Pyrrha, Ren, Nora, the jerk jock guy, a bunch of other people that he had seen in the Emerald Forest, and others that he had not, until he, Nana, and Ryuzu reached the front of the crowd, just to see-

"Why won't you people just leave me alone?!"

"Leave you- I've been trying to! I never wanted anything to do with you!"

"Then why did you follow me into Beacon!?"

"That was a coincidence!"

"Do I look like I believe that?!"

"Do I look like I care!?"

-Blake applying a kick to Weiss' jaw, sending her flying across the makeshift arena, and almost into the crowds as they backed off to a safer distance, only for Weiss to quickly recover herself as she whipped her sword to in front of herself, and let out a series of hardlight dust blasts at Blake, though the girl quickly dodged these shots and released a round of bullets at Weiss as well, though the girl quickly deflected them with her own blade as Blake threw her sword down at her, the 2 of them clashing blades as Blake pulled at her sword with a ribbon, twirling it through the air as she spun it around and threw it down at Weiss once more, only for the Schnee heiress to summon a glyph in front of her and deflect it, the gravity dust within sending it flying right back at Blake, only for the bow wearing woman to quickly catch it in her free hand and continue the fight once more.

The 2 of them seemed too absorbed in their fight to notice all of the people around them.

Jaune motioned for Nana and Ryuzu to keep themselves back, "Not yet. We need a better opening..."

"Don't tell Ryuzu what to do."

Nearby, just as they duelled with blades, Weiss and Blake duelled with words as well, with Weiss getting out the opening barb with, "Oh, you care! You care a lot! About how to try and kill me and the people I know and love every single second of the day! Just like every other White Fang in the world!"

"I am not part of the White Fang!" Blake cried out as she twirled over Weiss and deflected her blows on top of that, "Not anymore! I left them because of how violent they were growing!"

"Violence that you directed against me and my family! How many innocent people have you killed!? How many of my friends and family have you executed and slaughtered like animals, just to make your point!?"

"And how many people have you condemned to die in your mines!? How many people have you allowed to be butchers by racists and monsters that work under your family's banner in the mines, for them to be whipped and violated, just because of their race!?"

"I had nothing to do with those!" Weiss called back as she shot a plume of ice dust at the black and white themed girl once more, "I was a child! I had no control over what my father did! No one did! The bastard did whatever the hell he wanted, just to make a profit!"

"And I had no control over what the White Fang became!"

"You knew their leader!"

"I couldn't control him, even when I tried to! The White Fang was devolving into something monstrous! No matter what I did, nothing was stopping them from turning into monsters! I just had the sense to get out when it started going to hell! Unlike your father, who just continued to drive everyone under him into further- Further... Despotism!"

The 2 of them had stopped fighting now, and were just glaring each other down, waiting for the other to recommence the battle between them.

"You think I don't know that!? How many times do I have to say that I am not my father!"

"And I am not Adam!"

"Now!" Jaune called out.

The 2 girls looked to where he was standing, ""Wha-""

{BAM}

{CRASH}

{CLUTTER}

From the side, Ryuzu forced Weiss down to the floor with a concentrated burst of wind from her hands, knocking her weapon down to the ground and far away from her as the maid kept Weiss' arms pinned to her back-

"Ack! Ryuzu! What are you doing!?"

"What's best for Miss Schnee, Miss Schnee."

-Whilst nearby, Jaune and Nana chose the simple action and just-

{CRASH}

{RUFFLE}

"Augh, dammit! Let go of me!"

-Tackled Blake to the ground as well, kicking her weapon away as they kept her pinned to the floor and disarmed her.

"We'll let go when the both of you calm down!" Jaune yelled at her as he and Nana fought to keep the kicking and scratching woman restrained, whilst Ryuzu looked like she was having a much easier job of keeping hold of the much physically weaker Weiss. Either that or Ryuzu was just really, really strong. Jaune continued, "For god's sake, we only just got out of the Emerald Forest! We just survived fighting against the Cult! We don't need to start fighting each other as well!"

"Oh, get lost, Arc!" Blake snarled out to him, "I'll stop when the Schnee stops accusing me of being a monster!"

"And I'll stop when you-"

"Miss Schnee!"

"Shut it, Ryuzu! And I'll stop when she stops thinking me a monster, too!" Weiss retorted with as she was lifted up to her feet, only for her arms to be held behind her by Ryuzu still as she kicked against her captor.

"Oh for the love of- Hey, I get it! We're all pissed off!" Jaune called out to the both of them, as well as everyone else in the crowd, having grown tired of their little tiff, "We're all tired, and we're all scared, and we're all pissed! But that doesn't mean that we should-"

"Oh spare me the patronising rubbish, 'Orion'," Weiss called out mockingly as she wormed her way out of Ryuzu's grip, through one hand was still held by her maid as she lashed out and yelled, "Where were you when we were being attacked by the Husks!? Where were you when we were being slaughtered by the dozens!? You were off on top of the troop carrier, trying to run away with it!"

"Hey, he did nothing of the sort!" from the side lines, Anima Senterra walked out and pointed to Weiss, "He was trying to hijack the airship to bring it down on the Husks! And let me remind you that it actually worked!"

"Only because the engines were shot out, and it's not like it actually accomplished anything anyways," from beneath them, Blake finally got herself free, and back onto her feet, pulling her weapon into her hands as she gave Weiss a quick look, only to look up into the sky and mutter, "I should never have come here," and-

Someone grabbed her hand. It was Anima. Sparing Jaune a look, she then said to him, "I'll take care of her," and then began to pull her along, "C'mon, Blake, don't you want to spend some time with a fellow Faunus and her friends?" and with a mutter from Blake, Anima gave Jaune an apologetic look, and pulled her away, her 3 boys- Dove, Sky, and Russel- Followed along with her.

"Word of advice: Keep her away from me!" Weiss angrily called out to them, before picking her weapon up off of the floor, "Let's go, Ryuzu," and then allowing her maid to pull her away to parts unknown, the pink-haired and red-eyed woman sparing Jaune one last look, before they disappeared off into the distance.

Seeing as the spectacle was over, now, the crowds now around Jaune and Nana slowly began to disperse and go their own separate ways. Some, like the ginger jock guy, Cardin, just barked out a laugh at him and marched away. Some, like Ren, gave him a suspicious glance and dragged their partners and friends away hurryingly. Some, like Pyrrha, looked like they wanted to say something to him, but lacking the courage to do so, they hurryingly scuttled away, not wishing to be called out. The rest simply did not wish to look him in the eyes, and marched away as best and as inconspicuously as they could.

And soon...

They were all alone.

Jaune looked down at his hands as he sat down on the floor, and let out a tired sigh...

"That... Could've gone better..."

Nana sat down besides him, and hugged her knees to her chest, "And yet, it also could've gone a lot worse."

"...I guess."

Up above, the heavens opened up...

And it began to rain again.

Pitter patter pitter patter pitter patter pitter patter went the sound of the rain against the ground as they felt their clothes and hair and skin slowly getting soaked in water. Jaune's bare arm was left exposed, and the dried blood from his jumper began to leak out and mix with the rainwater on his bare skin, turning it a light shade of pink.

"...I don't know what to do."

Nana gave him a questioning look, "What do you mean?"

"I mean, I don't know what to do," Jaune repeated, "I mean, I want to fight to Cult, but I don't know how to do that. They're an army that somehow knows everything about me, and I need to call my parents to warn them about it, but there's god knows how many of them are actually out there, and I don't- I don't know what to do because the entire world is ending, and I want to help, but now know one trusts me at all because of what happened in the Emerald Forest, and-"

"I trust you."

Jaune looked at Nana with a questioning glance. It was a repeat of what happened earlier, because despite how much she reassured him, it was still hard to believe that she did.

"I would never betray you... You know that, right?"

_**YOU SEE, SOMEONE OUT THERE TRUSTS YOU! THAT'S A START!** _

_You really think so?_

_**YEAH, IT'S A- IT'S A SMALL START, BUT IT'S A START.** _

"...I... Thanks..." he said to her as they began to pick themselves up, and walk back towards the dorms, "Hang on, I need to- I need to call my family. Where's the- No, not the CCT tower. Where are the first year dorms?"

"Oh, er, it's- It's over that way," Nana went as she pointed to the side, taking his hand into her own and pulling him along, "C'mon, I'll take you there."

"Oh," Jaune smiled, "Thanks."

"Don't mention it, Jay…"

She smiled widely.

"Don't mention it."

* * *

_"What do you mean, they knew your old name?"_

Jaune looked at his phone as the face of his elder sister, Saphron, was projected wide on the screen, the image flickering occasionally as he looked down at the imposed portrait of the blonde-haired woman, "I mean, they know my old name. They know that I used to be called Orion. And I think-" he stopped himself, and paused. There was no one else in the room. Nana had excused herself to go to her own room ages ago, and all of his windows and doors were sealed and covered and locked, "I think that they knew what I did, before I was... Before I became an Arc."

_"...Oh my god."_

Jaune nodded, "Yeah, me too."

Another pause, this time from Saphron, before she finally opened up with, _"Do they... Are any of those cult people familiar to you?"_

"No, I've never encountered any of them before. I never even heard about them until today," something nagged at him in the back of his head, but it lasted for only a second.

_"Well, maybe- Maybe they were told about it by someone that you once- I don't know! Maybe they were told about it by someone that you once knew, or someone who found out about it on their own. I don't- I don't know. Maybe it was that. How else could they have known about out about it?"_

Jaune nodded to her, "I... That's a good idea, I guess. A good point, I mean."

**_I SUPPOSE THAT IT IS AS GOOD OF AN EXPLANATION THAT YOU CAN GET, BUT IT STILL DOESN'T FEEL RIGHT._ **

_I agree... Too many... It just feels too convenient... Too obvious... There has to be more than it than just that._

**_OR MAYBE WE'RE JUST OVERTHINKING IT AND IT IS THAT SIMPLE OF AN ANSWER. I MEAN, NOT EVERY ANSWER TO A QUESTION NEEDS TO BE SO COMPLICATED._ **

**_AND YET IT DOESN'T FEEL LIKE THE RIGHT ONE._ **

**_YOU THINK THERE REALLY IS MORE TO IT THAN JUST THEM FINDING OUT THE INFORMATION ABOUT HIS PAST THOUGH A LITTLE BIT OF DIGGING?_ **

_They're right: I just- It might be the simplest, and possibly most logical answer, but it just doesn't feel like the right one. There has to be more to it than that._

_"Are you okay, little bro? You're spacing out a bit."_

Jaune blinked, "Sorry," and then continued the conversation, "But, really, I don't... I don't know. Maybe-"

_"I think you should come back home."_

Jaune stopped, "...Huh?"

 _"Jaune, you were attacked,"_ Saphron began with an incredibly worried expression on her face, _"Worse still, you were almost killed! And this Cult thing isn't just happening in Vale: It's all over the world! I would rather- I'd rather you be here, with family, instead of all the way out there, in a place that's going tits up into hell and back! At least here in Argus, it's relatively safer than the major cities."_

"..."

"Jaune… Please."

…

…

…

…

This... Gave Jaune quite the bit of pause.

When he had left his home and ran away to Beacon, he had done so with the intent to get away from his family's controlling grip, and honour his adopted family legacy by carving out his own path into herodom, saving as many people as he could, and living up to the name of Arc as he saved everyone in the world, and then the world itself...

But now...

Now...

He didn't know anymore.

Could he actually do that? Could he actually become a Huntsman? Could he actually honour his family legacy- His ancestors?

Could he actually become a hero and save people?

Even when the world was collapsing in on itself, and turning inside out through flame and ice...

Even when a fanatic religious order was tearing apart Remnant, just to remake it in their image...

Even when everyone was against him, and nobody wanted to trust him because he was a failure who couldn't save anyone at all as the world around him turned into bloody ribbons illuminated by a silver gaze...

Could he really do any of that?

Could he really be a hero?

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

He really didn't know anymore.

"I'll... I'll think about it, Saph," he finally said to her as he turned his head away for a few brief moments, "I don't... I just need to think on it for a while..."

_"Jaune-"_

"Saphron, please," he interrupted her with as he looked back to her, "I just... I just need to think about it... Please..."

 _"...Alright then..."_ Saphron said to him as she looked the other way, _"I'll tell Mum and Dad, but..."_

She gave him a sad look.

_"Please... Just stay safe, okay? Everything... Everything's going to hell, and I would probably die if I lost you to this chaos..."_

_"...I'll be... I'll be okay, Saph,"_ he gave her a little wave, _"I love you."_

She gave a sad smile back, and waved too, "I love you too... Talk to you later, little brother..."

He smiled, "And to you too, sis," and with that, he ended the call, and the room fell into silence once more.

He let himself rest against the bed underneath him. He didn't know where Nana had found this room for him, what with the nice bed and all, with it all for himself, but right now, he was too tired to care.

He just wanted to sleep again.

He would have to thank her later...

…

…

…

…

**_IT'LL BE OKAY, JAUNE._ **

_How can you be so sure?_

**_…_ _YOU'RE RIGHT. I CAN'T._ **

**_BUT WHAT I CAN DO IS HOPE THAT THINGS WILL GET BETTER._ **

**_THINGS WILL GET BETTER FOR MY- FOR MY FAMILY._ **

**_THINGS WILL GET BETTER FOR YOU._ **

**_THINGS WILL GET BETTER FOR ALL OF REMNANT._ **

**_THIS I HOPE TO BE THE TRUTH._ **

_A hope isn't a guarantee._

**_NO, IT ISN'T..._ **

**_BUT IT IS AN IDEAL WORTH LIVING BY._ **

…

Jaune couldn't help but nod.

Summer was right.

He had to hope that things would get better in the future.

He had to hope that things would get better...

If not for him...

Than for everyone else.

He would unlock all 8 of these semblances...

He would beat the Cult of Silver...

He would save everyone from the Emerald Forest...

He would save everyone...

Or he would die trying.

But in any case, he refused to not give it his all anyways.

He refused to go down swinging.

He would defeat the Cult, and save everyone...

Or he would fall to his feet, and die with his words.

In any case, he would die doing good...

And maybe that was good enough.

…

_**WE'VE GOT YOUR BACK.** _

…

And for the first time in his life, as he drifted off to a well-deserved sleep against a word that was being torn apart...

Jaune appreciated their words.

(From deep within his soul, another pair of eyes stirred and smiled.

"And I shall be watching you too, Jaune… Orion…

A laugh.

"From now, until the end of time.")

* * *

**"Remnant?"**

"Crippled."

**"The Huntsmen?"**

"Fractured."

**"Vale?"**

"Broken."

Xaphan, the Will of Flugel, smiled.

**"Good..."**

The sight of Vale burning was just so beautiful.

**"It is time for Vale to bow down to the Crown."**

* * *

**And here we are! The final chapter of the very long and very tiring Beacon arc!**

**Gods, this one took a lot out of me! Like, seriously! I don't think I will ever get used to writing so many words in such a short amount of time! I mean, I wrote this chapter alone in just more than 24 hours! What am I doing with myself, man!**

**Just a quick word, though: I am going to be moving away from this fanfic for a while, now that this arc is done. I'm not abandoning it, mind you! I just need to work on my other fic, Ascendancy, and wrap up the arc currently in progress in that story, as well as add some more onto it, and on top of that, my university has just started up as well, so I've got work to do for that on top of this, so there's that!**

**So, hurray for me.**

**But, before we go, some discussions about the new faction and characters:**

**The Cult of Silver is an original creation, yes, but it was born out of an idea that I don't think has ever been explored in the FNDM: Antagonistic Silver-Eyed Warriors. Like, seriously, I feel like that should be a goldmine for story potential, and yet I don't think I've ever seen it explored at all in fanfiction. Like, it should be such an obvious idea, and yet we never see it in action!**

**And so, this is me pulling out some of that potential, if only my own take on it.**

**The Cult of Silver themselves are aesthetically based on the House of Salvation from Destiny 2: Beyond Light, which is why there are also multiple music ques from the Beyond Light soundtrack as well. And on top of that, the Cult's ice powers were also inspired by the darkness powers of Stasis, though in this fic, these powers weren't given to them by darkness, but by something far brighter...**

**And speaking of which, there are the new characters themselves, but for this right now, I shall only be speaking about the Aspects of Emotion, the leaders of the Cult of Silver:**

**Ruby Alter is, of course, based off of the Ruby Alter designs on Google Images, obviously, but, as if befitting of the Re:Zero inspirations that are littered through this story, she also takes some ques from Satella herself, though, like the Witch of Envy herself, the answer behind what she actually is, is a lot more complicated than it originally appears to be...**

**Baobhan Sith, the Aspect of Inspiration, as someone on Ao3 pointed out correctly, is based off of Echidna, the Witch of Greed. I just find her to be such an entertaining character, even if she is incredibly amoral. And because of that, Baobhan is actually one of my favourite characters to write.**

**Lamia and Lilith, the twin Aspects of Amusement, meanwhile, at least appearance wise, were visually based off of Mion and Shion Sonozaki from Higurashi, though to be assured, their personalities (Personality?) Are quite different.**

**Kasha, the Aspect of Serenity is visually based off of Crowbar from Transformers, while his personality is more like those propaganda radio hosts that would be heard during literally every war since WW1.**

**Upyr, the Aspect of Joy, was based off of Lye Batenkaitos, the gormet aspect and Archbishop of Gluttony, from Re:Zero, though his outfit is radically different, and is more akin to that of an average schoolgoer, while his vampirism is more in line with the inspirations behind their names, whilst his powers are more like that of the deadmen from Deadman Wonderland.**

**Jaracas, the Aspect of Forgiveness, is based off of Pirrha, the Rifleman from Destiny 2: Forsaken, but with a more stoic and less mocking personality.**

**Hsi-Hsue-Kue, the Aspect of Pride, is visually based off of Val Ca'uor from Destiny 2, but with a colour pallet change, and a much more bombastic and violent personality to go along with it.**

**Draugr, the Aspect of Interest, is visually based off of Shaula from Re:Zero, down to the cape and ponytail, though, like so many others, her personality is radically different.**

**And finally, Cihuateteo, the Aspect of Awe, is visually based of of the Diadact from Halo 4, though with a few cosmetic changes here and there, as well as being a young boy and not a 9 to 10 foot alien with what looks like a scrotum for a face.**

**And as for Jiang Shi... Well, we'll get there when we get there.**

**Fun fact! The Emerald Forest battle was going to be radically different with each and every variant that went through my head. Originally it was going to be just the Aspects that attacked, but then it shifted from less of a battle, and more of the entire Cult occupying the Emerald Forest, with our heroes doing their best to avoid the Cult's forces as they would've begun a guerrilla war against them, with the Cult even owning a navy battleship that they built from an old cargo ship that would've sailed up a nearby river adjacent to the Emerald Forest, before I eventually decided to settle on the battle that we got.**

**If I had to change anything about the Emerald Forest battle, I would've turned it back to that original idea, and focused more on the occupation of the Emerald Forest instead of the battle itself, but I'm already satisfied with what I've got, so I'm not going to change it.**

**To be honest, I've included a lot in all of these chapters that none of you guys have picked up on. I was, and still am to be honest, really surprised that you all just missed a lot of that stuff, and also a little disappointed.**

**But, that's enough from me! What did you guys think? Please, spill out all of your thoughts and questions into the reviews sections, don't forget to favourite and follow, and with all of that said and done, stay safe, stay healthy, and I shall see you all next time!**

**Titanmaster117-**

_**THERE'S A MONSTER INSIDE OF ALL OF US.** _

_**IT SPEAKS AND WEEPS AND WISHES TO BE FREE.** _

_**IT CLAWS AND NASHES AND WISHES TO BE LET OUT.** _

_**IT WISHES TO CUT AND SLICE AND DASH AND LAY TO RUIN.** _

_**IT EXISTS BECAUSE IT IS OUR MONSTER. IT RUINS ONLY BECAUSE IT EXISTS TO RUIN.** _

_**THERE IS A MONSTER INSIDE OF ALL OF US.** _

_**AND YET WE CONTINUE TO FIGHT IT.** _

_**WHY?** _

_**BECAUSE IF WE DON'T, THEN IT WILL SPELL DOOM FOR US ALL.** _

_**SO WHY...** _

_**WHY...** _

_**WHY ARE THERE PEOPLE WHO WISH TO EMBRACE THEIR MONSTERS?** _

_**MAYBE IT IS BECAUSE THEY BELIEVE THEY HAVE NO CHOICE.** _

_**MAYBE THEY BELIEVE THAT IS IT IS THE ONLY OPTION THAT THEY HAVE LEFT.** _

_**MAYBE THEY JUST DO IT FOR FUN- FOR THE SHEER HELL OF IT.** _

_**OR MAYBE...** _

_**JUST MAYBE...** _

_**MAYBE THEY BELIEVE THAT IT IS SIMPLY THE RIGHT THING TO DO.** _

_**THERE'S A MONSTER INSIDE OF ALL OF US.** _

_**WE JUST HAVE TO MAKE SURE NEVER TO LET IT FREE...** _

_**OR LET SOMEONE ELSE LET IT FREE.** _

**-Out... What the hell was that?**


End file.
